Search Results Within Category "Addiction & Substance Abuse"
Women, Opioid Use Disorder, and Criminal Justice: A Qualitative Study
Opioid-related overdose deaths and incarceration rates have skyrocketed and have disproportionately affected women. Despite having a higher burden of substance use disorders and HIV/AIDS than criminal justice-involved (CJI) men, CJI women are less likely to have access to substance use and HIV treatment. This qualitative study will conduct in-depth interviews with CJI women, MAT providers, and criminal justice professionals to identify facilitators and barriers to illicit opioid use cessation and related issues among CJI women.
substance use
opioid use
criminal justice
drug treatment
Testing the effect of ENDS flavors on Neurotransmission
Tobacco users will be randomized to use electronic cigarettes containing varying levels of nicotine and flavor during laboratory protocols to investigate the effects on the brain and behavior. Subjects will complete surveys, functional magnetic resonance imaging scans, and complete computerized tasks. Eligible participants include daily users of inhaled tobacco products who are at least 21 years old, able to read and write in English, and not planning to quit tobacco use within the next month. Exclusion criteria include: current substance use impairing participation, unstable or significant medical conditions, current use of smoking cessation medication, uncontrolled serious mental illness, and MRI safety or neurological contraindications.
Subjects will taste test a variety of e-cigarette flavorings, answer questions and complete a single MRI.
50
No plan to quit tobacco use in the next month
Age 21 or older
Able to read and write in English
Unstable or Significant Medical Conditions
Uncontrolled serious mental illness
Current substance abuse
Habit Learning in Adolescents and Young Adults
This research seeks to exam behavioral and neural differences in the formation and maintenance of habit behavior in adolescents and adults.
All visits will be in person. Participants in Group 1 will complete one 1-day training session and will be at the imaging center for approximately 1.5 hours total.Participants in Group 2 will complete a 3-day training session, during which the same types of procedures are done, just with more trials. Participants in this group will undergo four training sessions (instead of 2) on Day 1 and Day 2. Each of the three visits will be about 1.5-2 hours long.For both groups, we will obtain informed consent and assent, height and weight, and demographic information. They will also answer questionnaires and work on a cognitive assessment battery. Within the scanner, we will collect anatomical data, task related fMRI data and resting state fMRI data.
$150
Health adults between the ages of 25 to 40
Not currently taking medications known to influence body weight, task, food intake, behavior, or blood flow
Left handed
Diagnosed neurological or psychological condition including anxiety or depression
Currently or planning to follow a diet for weight loss
Non-removable body piercings, pacemaker, or other metal implants that would preclude safe completion of an MRI
Recruitment for Nicotine and Tobacco Related Research at Penn State Hershey
The purpose of this project is to screen potential participants for multiple research studies being conducted by tobacco researchers at Penn State Hershey. Since there are multiple IRB approved studies enrolling at Penn State Hershey with similar but not identical inclusion/exclusion criteria, it is more efficient for the researchers and participants to have one phone number to call initially for basic screening. After completing this, the participant can be redirected for more specific screening if they are found to be potentially eligible for one of the studies.
Participants will fill out a 5-minute survey on tobacco use in order to find out which study they may be eligible for.
Depends on study
Current tobacco user
Translational Studies on Electronic Cigarette-derived Oxidants and their Long-term Cardiopulmonary Effects
This is a pilot study on the impact of switching from cigarettes to Electronic Cigarettes on disease-related clinical symptoms and biomarkers of harm in smokers with preexisting COPD
You will be asked to reduce your cigarette smoking and use study-provided e-cigarettes for 3 months. You will be asked to attend 2 in-person visits at the Hershey Medical Center and participate in 4 telephone visits. Throughout the study you will be asked to complete questionnaires, have heart rate, blood pressure and pulse oximetry taken, electrocardiograms (ECGs), height and weight measured, provide medical history, perform pulmonary function tests, complete a 6-minute walk, have your exhaled carbon monoxide measured, provide urine specimen and have blood drawn.
mild-moderate COPD
current smoker
current use of other tobacco products
allergic to vegetable glycerin and/or propylene glycol
chronic drug and/or alcohol abuse
Examining brain responses linked to emotion in individuals who smoke cigarettes
The goal of this study is to measure emotional and brain responses related to the motivation to smoke cigarettes. The study uses a method called functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, which is a research method for measuring activity in the brain. The study also involves measuring moment-to-moment changes in emotion by coding facial expressions. A primary goal of the project is to examine how changes in brain activity are related to changes in emotion over time. If successful, the project will help to demonstrate the usefulness of combining fMRI and facial coding to study cigarette smoking and other harmful behaviors.
There will be two in-person visits. Brain imaging scans (using functional magnetic resonance imaging) will be completed at one of these visits.
100
Must smoke cigarettes each day
Must be right handed
Must be fluent English speaker
Must be willing to abstain from smoking for 12 hours during the study
Must not currently have significant cardiovascular or respiratory disease
Must not be claustrophobic
The opioid epidemic among Pennsylvania immigrants: Insights from prescribers and rehabilitation professionals
We will interview prescribers and rehabilitation professionals who have provided services and treatment to immigrants in PA with a history of opioid abuse. The goal is to highlight best practices, resources needed, cultural awareness, and training needs to support the rehabilitation and recovery of this client group.
One 45-minute, recorded interview via Zoom
$50.00 Amazon gift card
Substance abuse treatment provider
Opiate pain medication prescriber
Service provider in PA
Provide services to immigrants (non-citizens)
No experience with immigrant patients/clients
No experience with opioid use disorder
Understanding the Experiences of College Students of Color with Psychiatric Disabilities
The purpose of this study is to develop a better understanding of the lived experiences of college students of color with psychiatric disabilities, particularly related to the formation of racial identity, disability identity, and the impact of perceived discrimination.
18 years of age or older
Capable of providing informed consent
Diagnosis of a psychiatric disability
Identify as a person of color
Individuals who are not yet legal adults
Prisoners
Unable to speak/read English Language at time of interview
Slips of Action in Adolescents and Young Adults
Adolescence is a critical period during which many important healthhttps://irb.psu.edu/IRB/sd/ResourceAdministration/Project/ProjectEditor?Project=com.webridge.entity.Entity[OID[058ACDEB3E43384D816C7E390C2B83F6]]&Mode=smartform&WizardPageOID=com.webridge.entity.Entity[OID[E4552FC57E491543A6B7FD8268E23FD7]] habits form in humans. However, animal models provide mixed information about habit formation across development and there are relatively few human studies that address differences between habit formation in adolescents and adults. To address this gap, the proposed study will assess differences in habit formation in adolescents and adults as measured by the "Slips of Action" task, which seeks to discriminate between habitual and goal-directed learning of visual stimuli pairings.
There will be one in-person visit lasting about one hour. Visits will begin with informed consent. Participants will complete a computer task where they are asked to learn associations between pictures and then will be tested on the associated pairings. They will also complete questionnaires and cognitive tasks.
$20
Healthy adults between the ages of 25 to 40
No learning disabilities (e.g., ADHD) or diagnosed psychological conditions (e.g. anxiety)
Right handed
Not on any medications known to influence behavior
Diagnosed neurological or psychological condition including severe anxiety and/or depression, schizophrenia, learning disability, ADD/ADHD, or autism
Significant family history of neurological or psychological disorders
Left handed
Participant is on any medication that may influence behavior
Examining responses to rewards in the laboratory and during daily life in individuals who smoke cigarettes
The goal of this study is to learn more about how people who smokecigarettes respond to rewards, such as winning money, under different conditions. The study uses a method called functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, which is a research method for measuring activity in the brain. In this study, we are using fMRI to measure how brain activity changes in people who smoke when they receive rewards. The fMRI measures are collected during two separate visits. Participants are also asked to fill out questionnaires and complete computer tasks while in the lab. In addition, the study involves measuring thoughts and behaviors in people who smoke in real life by asking them to fill out surveys on a smartphone. Participants are asked to carry a smartphone for a total of 10 days and answer several surveys throughout each day. In order to be eligible for the study, individuals must be between 18 and 55 years old and you must smoke on a daily basis.
Right Handed
Smokes cigarettes
Left Handed
non-smokers
The opioid epidemic among Pennsylvania immigrants: Implications for treatment practices
We plan to interview PA immigrants who have first-hand experience with opioid abuse or who have friends/family/neighbors with opioid abuse experiences. The goal is to highlight areas for improvement, regarding access to treatment and quality of treatment for immigrants. We hypothesize that immigrant status uniquely impacts this group and their rehabilitation journeys, but this has not yet been studied.
There will be one semi-structured, qualitative interview over Zoom, for about 45 minutes. Interviews may be in-person if there is no Zoom access.
$75.00 gift card
PA resident
18 years of age and older
Experience with opioid abuse
Friend or family member with opioid abuse experience
U.S. citizen
Below 18 years of age
No opioid abuse experience
diagnosis of an intellectual/developmental disability
Linking brain network dynamics to smoking-related behavior
Most attempts to quit smoking end in relapse, or a return to regular smoking. One of the biggest threats to cessation is a lapse (i.e., any cigarette use during a quit attempt). Thus, characterizing why lapses occur is essential to understanding and preventing smoking relapse. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a promising method for characterizing the psychological processes that lead to smoking lapses because it provides a way to measures patterns of brain activity thought to reflect relevant mental processes as they change over time. However, methodological issues have hindered the ability to capitalize on this potential and prevented an understanding of how brain activity and corresponding psychological processes unfold in the critical moments that immediately precede a smoking lapse. The proposed project will address this knowledge gap using a novel fMRI paradigm adapted from a well-validated behavioral lapse task. The goals of the project are to characterize changes in brain activity that lead up to a lapse and to investigate how these changes are related to concurrent affect and subsequent cigarette use.
There will be two in-person visits, both will involve completion of computerized questionnaires and one will involve completing and MRI scan
175
Age 21-65
Claustrophobic
Emotion dynamics and alcohol use in NIAAA-defined recovery from alcohol use disorder
This study uses a baseline assessment and 28 days of ecological momentary assessment to examine the association of emotion dynamics to craving and alcohol use among people in the first year of cessation of heavy drinking and remission from DSM-5 AUD.
There will be one in person visit. Participants will be asked to complete baseline questionnaires. After the baseline assessment, participants will complete 28 days of daily diary questions on their cell phone. A prompt will be sent to the phone 3 times per day. It should take 5 minutes (15 minutes total/day) to complete the questions.
189
Have a history of a previous (AUD) in the past year
Live within commuting distance of the Penn State Clinical Research Center
Bipolar disorder
Cognitive impairment
Active drug use disorder other than nicotine or cannabis dependence
Lack of sufficient familiarity with the English language to comprehend recruitment and consent procedures
How Does the Intersection of Gender and Language Affect Stigma in Opioid Use Disorder?
This research experimental study aims to investigate the impact of gender and language on stigma related to opioid use disorder (OUD) among college students. Participants, aged 18 and older, will be randomly assigned to read vignettes describing individuals with OUD, varying in gender and language use. After reading, participants will complete a brief survey assessing their perceptions of stigma associated with OUD. The study seeks to uncover how stigmatizing language and gender-specific societal expectations interact to shape attitudes, contributing to a better understanding of OUD stigma in the college-aged population.
Participants will engage in a structured series of activities. Initially, they will complete a demographics questionnaire, providing essential information such as age, gender, and college affiliation. Subsequently, participants will be presented with one of four vignettes designed to systematically manipulate language and gender variables related to OUD stigma. Following the vignette exposure, participants will respond to The Perceived Stigma of Substance Abuse Scale (PSSAS) as part of the survey.
18 years or older
Not a college student
Translational Study on Temperature and Solvent Effects on Electronic Cigarette-Derived Oxidants
Determine if free radicals produced by electronic cigarettes or conventional cigarettes impact inflammation and oxidative stress responses in users.
Subjects will come to the Clinical Research Center at Hershey and if they are a nicotine user they will bring their device (cigarette or e-cigarette) with them. Healthy volunteers will answer the same questionnaires and provide the same samples but will not use any nicotine during their visit. They will provide blood, urine and exhaled breath condensate samples. They will be videotaped using their own devices and they will answer questionnaires. This is a one-time visit that will last around 2 hours.
50
For cigarette or e-cigarette users: No plan on quitting in the next 3 months
For e-cigarette users: E-cigarette use for more than 1 year
For cigarette users: Cigarette use for more than 1 year
For
Uncontrolled substance abuse
Pregnant or nursing
Nicotine absorption, toxicant exposure, and subjective effects of a heat-not burn tobacco product
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the nicotine delivery, toxicant exposure, and subjective effects associated with the use of heat-not burn tobacco products, compared with electronic cigarettes.
Participants will attend 2 clinic visits at the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center lasting approximately 1 ½ hours each. Participants will be asked to refrain from using any tobacco or nicotine products for at least 14 hours prior to each visit. During the visit participants will try the new tobacco products in the study center while blood samples are collected through an IV catheter placed in the arm.
120
Current daily cigarette smoker (5 or more per day)
History of a seizure disorder or had a seizure in the past 12 months
History of difficulty providing or unwilling to provide blood samples
Current user of an IQOS device
Current user of an electronic cigarette device
Oxidative Stress and Harmful Constituent Levels Associated with Little Cigars
The propose of this voluntary research study is to look at the effect of little cigars on biomarkers of potential harm with a focus on oxidative stress and inflammation. The study is also interested the effect of flavors in little cigar.
Subjects will attend 7 study visits over 7 weeks. They will be sent home with a selection of little cigars to use during the first week. Starting at week 2, they will be asked to smoke a certain cigar each week for the next 6 weeks at their study visit. They will be asked to answer a series of questionnaires and to provide biosamples (Exhaled Carbon Monoxide, Exhaled Breath Condensate and Spirometry).
600
Daily tobacco smoker
No serious quit attempts in previous 30 days
Respiratory diseases
Substance Abuse