Dan Capron, Associate Professor and Associate Chair
Office: 233 Audubon Hall
Department of Psychology
Louisiana State University
Baton Rouge, LA 70803
Email: dcapron@lsu.edu
View Dr. Capron's lab website.
Dr. Capron is accepting students for Fall 2026.
Profile
Dr. Capron is an Associate Professor and Associate Chair in the Department of Psychology at Louisiana State University, where he directs the Anxiety and Trauma Research Program. His work focuses on suicide prevention, cognitive risk factors for psychopathology, and scalable technology-delivered interventions for high-risk populations. He has published extensively on suicide risk, anxiety sensitivity, behavioral economics, virtual reality, and military mental health, and his research has been supported by federal and institutional funding. In addition to his research program, Dr. Capron contributes to departmental leadership, undergraduate education, graduate mentorship, and professional/community service.
Administrative Leadership
Associate Chair, Department of Psychology, Louisiana State University
Director, Anxiety and Trauma Research Program
Coordinator, Introduction to Psychology
Editorial and Professional Service
Associate Editor, Cognitive Therapy and Research
Editorial Board Member, Behaviour Research and Therapy
Selected Honors
2025 Louisiana Psychological Association Contributions to Psychological Science Award
2022 Graduate Mentor of the Year (University of So. Mississippi)
Education
- PhD, Clinical Psychology - Florida State University
- MS, Clinical Psychology - Florida State University
- BA, Political Science - Providence College
Representative Publications
Capron, D. W., Bauer, B. W., & Bryan, C. J. (2022). When people die by suicide: Introducing unacceptable loss thresholds as a potential missing link between suicide readiness states and actively suicidal clinical states. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 52(2), 280–288. https://doi.org/10.1111/sltb.12820
Schmidt, N. B., Capron, D. W., Raines, A. M., Albanese, B., Short, N., Mathes, B. M., Morabito, D. M., Saulnier, K., & Allan, N. P. (2023). Evaluating the long-term (three year) durability of brief interventions targeting risk factors for psychopathology. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 96, 102710. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2023.102710
Anestis, M. D., Bryan, C. J., Capron, D. W., & Bryan, A. O. (2022). Evaluation of safe firearm storage messaging in a sample of firearm-owning US military service members. JAMA Network Open, 5(10), e2235984. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.35984
Buerke, M., Pleiman, A. J., Stoneking, F., & Capron, D. W. (2026). Unique predictive effects of anxiety sensitivity, depression sensitivity, and anxiety sensitivity-suicidal cognitive concerns on anxiety, depression, interpersonal hopelessness, and past month and lifetime suicidal ideation. Journal of Affective Disorders, 412, 122053. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2026.122053
Buerke, M., Caulfield, N., Karnick, A., Hill, R., Tucker, R. P., & Capron, D. W. (2024). Suicidal ideation and sensation seeking predict suicidal completion in virtual reality: Considerations for the future use of virtual reality for the study of suicidality. Journal of Technology in Behavioral Science, 10(1), 51–58. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41347-024-00414-w
O’Brien, E. J., Buerke, M., Bauer, B. W., Anestis, M. D., & Capron, D. W. (2025). Posttraumatic stress symptoms relate to acquired suicide capability through dissociation and alcohol use in the National Guard. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 55(4), e70036. https://doi.org/10.1111/sltb.70036
Bauer, B. W., & Capron, D. W. (2020). How behavioral economics and nudges could help diminish irrationality in suicide-related decisions. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 15(1), 44–61. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691619866463