Safety, feasibility, and acceptability of MDMA-assisted therapy for the treatment of co-occurring alcohol use disorders and posttraumatic stress disorder in veterans.
Rachel Cassidy recently was interviewed about the potential for the FDA's newly announced nicotine reduction policy to affect smokers. "We don't want to create a prohibition on nicotine. What we want is for people to shift from combustible cigarettes, which are incredibly harmful — they kill half the people who use them past the age of 40 — to other forms of nicotine which are far less harmful," Cassidy said.
Drs. Gunn, Aston, and Metrik published a review paper, "Patterns of cannabis and alcohol co-use: Substitution versus complementary effects" in Alcohol Research: Current Reviews. (image credit: Jorge Láscar, Wikimedia Commons)
CAAS Senior Research Assistant Jake Tempchin will matriculate this fall at the University of Memphis in pursuit of a PhD in clinical psychology. He will study with Dr. Jim Murphy, focusing on behavioral economics, motivational interviewing, and the implementation of interventions to reduce harms experienced from substance use.
Dr. David Zelaya recently published "Psychometric validation and extension of the LGBT people of Color Microaggressions Scale with a sample of sexual minority BIPOC college students" in the journal Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity. Dr. Zelaya's research provides further rigorous statistical support and evidence for researchers and clinicians to use the LGBT People of Color Microaggressions Scale. Additionally, findings from the study allows for more nuanced ways to capture the frequency (i.e., within the past year and lifetime) and appraisal of stress associated with intersectional forms of discrimination.
Dr. Christy Capone and colleagues recently published primary outcomes of an RCT funded by the DoD examining a psychotherapy focused on trauma-related guilt and shame in post-9/11 veterans. Results found that Trauma Informed Guilt Reduction (TrIGR) resulted in significant reductions in guilt and PTSD and depressive symptoms as compared to Supportive Care Therapy. The research appears in the journal Depression and Anxiety.
Matthew Meisel had a paper accepted for publication in the journal BMC Psychology. In the manuscript, in a sample of emerging adults who never attended 4-year college, the authors found that most of the sample experienced some form of education-based stigma and discrimination and that these experiences were associated with worse mental health symptoms.