Gwen Lapham, PhD, MPH, MSW, recently published Prevalence of Cannabis Use Disorder and Reasons for Use Among Adults in a US State Where Recreational Cannabis Use Is Legal, in JAMA Network Open. Dr. Lapham led the CTN-0077 study and is a PROUD (CTN-0074) co-investigator and Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute (KPWHRI) assistant investigator and addictions health services researcher.  She is also an assistant affiliate professor in the Department of Health Systems and Population Health, University of Washington, and assistant professor in the Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine. Since joining KPWHRI, she has capitalized on her prior social work and health services training to do impactful research on evidence-based primary care for unhealthy substance use, including alcohol, cannabis, and opioids. She has recently begun making strides in understanding cannabis use among primary care patients, including medical use and use among prenatal women. Kelly Young-Wolff, PhD, MPH was recently selected to be a member of the NASEM Committee to Review the Public Health Consequences of Changes in the Cannabis Policy Landscape. Dr. Young-Wolff is leading CTN-0140 and is a licensed clinical psychologist and research scientist at the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research. She is also an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco; Consulting Assistant Professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine; and Professor, Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine. Dr. Young-Wolff’s research focuses on substance use, focusing specifically on cannabis use among pregnant persons and adolescents and on the impact of changes…

(pictured above: John Rotrosen, Ned Nunes, and Jennifer McNeely, leadership of the NY Node) The NYU Grossman School of Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry had retirement party on October 4th celebrating John Rotrosen MD and his remarkable career! John joined NYU in 1968 as a medical student, stayed on through a research residency in psychiatry, and since, as faculty, most of that time overseeing clinical and research programs at Bellevue Hospital and the VA, with generous research funding mostly from the NIH and the VA.  A highlight of all of those years has been his team’s association with NIDA’s CTN since its inception in 2000, and especially since 2010 with the merger of two nodes, the first funded through NYU and the second, funded through RFMH/Columbia, into the current New York Node co-led by him and Ned Nunes as multiple-PIs.  As of July 1, Jennifer McNeely, MD, MS, Associate Professor in the departments of Population Health and Medicine at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine has assumed John’s role as contact PI at NYU. (pictured above: Dr. Rotrosen literally handing the baton to Dr. McNeely!) Posted October 13, 2023

The Learning for Early Careers in Addiction and Diversity (LEAD) program, a NIDA-funded science education program focused on addictions research training is recruiting a new cohort of scholars. The program trains early career substance use disorder researchers from racial/ethnic minoritized groups that are underrepresented as NIH funded investigators. The program announcement includes eligibility criteria and instructions about how to submit an application for consideration. Find the application here. The requirements are on the application, which include the following: Posted October 13, 2023

Andrew Saxon, MD (VA Puget Sound, UW Dept of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences), and Joseph Merrill, MD (UW Medicine), both long-time members of the CTN’s Pacific Northwest Node, were recently included in Seattle Met Magazine’s “Top Docs of 2023” feature (both in the category of Addiction Medicine). Congratulations, Drs. Saxon and Merrill, and thank you for your continued support of the CTN and the Pacific Northwest Node! Posted October 12, 2023

New England Consortium Node member: Angela Haeny, PhD, assistant professor of psychiatry and director of the Racial Equity & Addiction Lab, was the recipient of the 2023 Early Career Investigator Award from the Translational Mechanisms of Behavior Change (MOBC) Satellite Meeting at the Research Society on Alcohol (RSA). New Publication including NEC Node members: Ren Boyu, Lipsitz Stuart R, Weiss Roger D, Fitzmaurice Garrett M. Methods for handling missing binary data in substance use disorder trials. Drug Alcohol Depend. 2023 Sep 1;250:110897. doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2023.110897. Epub 2023 Jul 13. PMID: 37544038 New Publication including NEC Node members: Paschen-Wolff M, Greenfield SF, Kathryn McHugh R, Burlew K, Pavlicova M, Choo TH, Barbosa-Leiker C, Ruglass LM, Mennenga S, Rotrosen J, Nunes EV, Campbell ANC. Clinical and psychosocial outcomes by sex among individuals prescribed buprenorphine-naloxone (BUP-NX) or extended-release naltrexone (XR-NTX) for opioid use disorder. Am J Addict. 2023 Aug 15. doi: 10.1111/ajad.13463. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 37583120 New Publication including a NEC Node Participating Site (Boston Medical Center): Liu J, Pan Y, Nelson MC, Gooden LK, Metsch LR, Rodriguez AE, Tross S, Del Rio C, Mandler RN, Feaster DJ. Strategies of Managing Repeated Measures: Using Synthetic Random Forest to Predict HIV Viral Suppression Status Among Hospitalized Persons with HIV. AIDS Behav. 2023 Sep;27(9):2915-2931. doi: 10.1007/s10461-023-04015-1. Epub 2023 Feb 5. PMID: 36739589, PMCID: PMC10403627.

NIDA News Release Buprenorphine initiation in the ER found safe and effective for individuals with OUD who use fentanyl. NIDA News, March 30, 2023. Referencing findings: D’Onofrio G, Hawk KF, Perrone J, et al. Incidence of Precipitated Withdrawal During a Multisite Emergency Department–Initiated Buprenorphine Clinical Trial in the Era of Fentanyl. JAMA Netw Open. 2023;6(3):e236108. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.6108 New Publication Kropp FB, Smid MC, Lofwall MR, Wachman EM, Martin PR, Murphy SM, Wilder CM, Winhusen TJ. Collaborative care programs for pregnant and postpartum individuals with opioid use disorder: Organizational characteristics of sites participating in the NIDA CTN0080 MOMs study. J Subst Use Addict Treat. 2023 Apr 4;149:209030. doi: 10.1016/j.josat.2023.209030. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 37023858. Posted April 17, 2023

CTN Western States Node investigators Dan Hartung and Elizabeth Waddell recently published findings from their CDC-funded project, Reducing Overdose After Release from Incarceration (PI: Waddell) that demonstrate risk of fatal and non-fatal opioid overdose risk is 10x greater among Oregon adults releasing from prison than in the state’s general population. Risk is even higher among women, those with documented substance use disorder and mental health treatment needs, and in the two weeks post release. Read the article in JSAT here. These findings are already driving policy discussions in Oregon and were covered in local media, emphasizing the need to start treatment prior to release and to allocate resources for more intentional release planning that connects adults in custody to community treatment. Check out the news reports here: Posted April 5, 2023