Leveraging Mobile Technology to Explicate the Role of Emotions in Substance Use Among Trauma-Exposed Community Adults

Project Summary/Abstract The co-occurrence of substance use and trauma is an urgent health priority. The vast majority of U.S. adults (89.7%) have experienced at least one traumatic event in their lifetime. Individuals with (versus without) posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have higher rates of problematic drug and alcohol use, and individuals with co-occurring PTSD and substance use disorders have greater functional impairment, more severe PTSD symptoms, and worse substance use outcomes relative to individuals with either disorder alone. Yet, work focusing on mechanisms which underlie this co-occurrence has been limited in its use of retrospective, self- report designs. Emotional processes may be especially potent predictors of substance use among trauma- exposed individuals. Given that emotions and substance use each tend to fluctuate widely across contexts and over time, they are best captured through methodologies which allow them to be modeled as such. The proposed project will leverage a combination of subjective (i.e., experience sampling methodology) and objective (i.e., physiological indices via biosensor) metrics to explore the role of emotional processes in substance use in the daily lives of trauma-exposed community adults. This study lays the groundwork for the early detection and intervention of substance use among trauma-exposed individuals. Dr. Schick is extremely well-qualified for the Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award. She is a highly productive NIDA-funded T32 Postdoctoral Fellow in Substance Use Prevention Research in the Department of Psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine. During the training period, Dr. Schick will be housed within the Department of Psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine, which provides an intellectually stimulating environment with outstanding resources to ensure the successful achievement of her training plan. She has assembled a team of mentors who are each nationally known for their research in areas pertinent to the training plan, which will provide access to world-class expertise in research design, methodology and analysis. Dr. Schick's program of research focuses on the ways in which intra-individual processes, most notably emotional processes, influence substance use. Her long-term goals are to be a leader in research aimed at elucidating emotional processes in substance use among trauma-exposed individuals and to lead an interdisciplinary research team to develop, test, and disseminate prevention and treatment programs targeting reduced substance use among trauma-exposed individuals. Continued sponsorship, mentorship, and directed study will facilitate the development of advanced research skills so Dr. Schick can be at the forefront of cutting- edge research in these areas. Short-term career objectives focus on (a) developing proficiency in micro- longitudinal research design, methods, and analysis; (b) enhancing knowledge of autonomic nervous system functioning and psychophysiological indices of emotional processes; and (c) use of wearable biosensors to passively collect indices of emotional processes.