Addiction Archives

Through a new $3.8-million, five-year NIH-funded project, UNC School of Medicine researcher Aysenil Belger, PhD, and Diana Fishbein, PhD, at Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute will examine neurological and psychological factors that lead some adolescents with anxiety symptoms to use controlled substances. The goal is to improve precision-based, targeted interventions for these teens.

A new study published by UNC Family Medicine’s Sarah Kowitt, PhD, MPH, and colleagues looked at the impact of different types of warning signs for large and premium cigars sold individually at the point of sale. The team’s newly developed graphic and text warnings were more effective than the FDA’s proposed text-only warnings and could potentially increase the effectiveness of warning signs for large and premium cigars.

Springer recently released "Chronic Illness Care, Principles and Practice," edited by UNC Family Medicine's Timothy P. Daaleman, DO, MPH, and Margaret R. Helton, MD. Faculty members in the Department of Family Medicine, faculty across the UNC-Chapel Hill campus, and other national and international experts wrote the textbook.

Adam Goldstein, MD, MPH, traveled to the White House on June 1 for the Cancer Moonshot Smoking Cessation Forum. The meeting highlighted the Biden Administration’s commitment to tackling the single biggest driver of cancer deaths in this country—smoking—and efforts underway across sectors to equitably expand access to effective smoking cessation support.

Gregory Scherrer, PharmD, PhD, associate professor of cell biology and physiology and member of the UNC Neuroscience Center, received a Director’s Award for Excellence in Research, and Sarah Linnstaedt, PhD, associate professor of anesthesiology, earned an honorable mention for the Director’s Trailblazer award.

UNC Tobacco Prevention and Evaluation Program faculty Justin Byron, PhD, Chineme Enyioha, MD, MPH, and Adam Goldstein, MD, MPH, have published a lead commentary in the journal Nicotine & Tobacco Research outlining the communication research needed to accompany landmark regulation banning menthol in tobacco products.

Sarah Kowitt, PhD, MPH, assistant professor in the UNC Department of Family Medicine, was recently awarded a five-year, $762,196 grant by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The Mentored Research Scientist Career Development Award (K01 grant) focuses on tobacco regulatory research in youth, specifically on how to communicate the harms of multiple tobacco products that youth may be using—referred to as multiple tobacco product (MTP) use—instead of just one product at a time.

Chineme Enyioha, MD, MPH, assistant professor in the UNC Department of Family Medicine, was recently awarded a K23 Career Development Award for a study entitled, “Development of a prototype for a mobile health intervention for smoking cessation with features culturally adapted for African American smokers.” Enyioha will focus her work on creating a mobile cessation system specifically targeted at African American smokers.

A research team from UNC-Chapel Hill, UC San Francisco, Yale, Duke, and Stanford developed a new compound that hits the same brain cell target as psychedelic drugs, triggering long-lasting anti-depressant action without psychedelic effects in mice.

UNC School of Medicine researchers led by Hyejung Won, PhD, used a new kind of computational tool to parse the complicated genetics that put some people at higher risk of becoming addicted to alcohol, cigarettes, and likely other substances of abuse.

Sarah Kowitt, PhD, MPH, Adam Goldstein, MD, MPH, and Samuel Cykert, MD, recently published a study that found a cardiovascular disease risk reduction intervention improved rates of tobacco screening and cessation support in small primary care practices in North Carolina.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Department of Family Medicine is pleased to announce that Kimberly Shoenbill, MD, PhD, has been selected as the new Director of the UNC Tobacco Treatment and Weight Management Programs.

Category: Addiction

New Mental Health Partnership Looks to Explain Biological Factors Behind Substance Use in Adolescents Experiencing Anxiety

Kowitt, Team Develop Effective Cigar Warning Signage

UNC Department of Family Medicine Authors Second Edition of Chronic Illness Care Textbook

Goldstein Represents UNC at White House Smoking Cessation Forum

Scherrer, Linnstaedt Earn NIH HEAL Initiative Honors

UNC Faculty Address Need for Communication Research to Accompany an FDA National Menthol Ban

Kowitt Awarded K01 to Help Communicate Harms of Multiple Tobacco Products to Youth

Enyioha Receives Career Development Award to Study Culturally Adapted Intervention for African American Smokers

Scientists Create Non-Psychedelic Compound with Same Anti-depressant Effect

Scientists Reveal Genetic Architecture Underlying Alcohol, Cigarette Abuse

Study Finds Intervention Improved Rates of Tobacco Screening, Cessation Support in Small North Carolina Practices

Shoenbill Named Director of Tobacco Treatment and Weight Management Programs