Funded Projects

This research project will include focus group interviews with clinicians, patients, medical interpreters, and healthcare administrators to identify barriers and facilitators to administering the GetActive+ intervention in a group visit at a clinic for older adults with chronic pain, to inform development of a therapy manual. The project will then test the GetActive+ intervention for changes in physical function immediately post-intervention and after 6 months, as well as for changes in pain, sleep, depression, and anxiety at both time points. This research will also assess feasibility, acceptability, fidelity, and adoption of the intervention with patients, providers, and healthcare staff. 

Online peer-led support interventions may increase medication-assisted therapy (MAT) initiation and sustainment among participants with opioid use disorder (OUD) because they can leverage peers to widely and rapidly scale changes in social norms (e.g., interest in using MAT) throughout people’s natural, real-world, virtual environments. Harnessing Online Peer Education (HOPE), an online peer support community intervention designed to reduce stigma and increase health behavior change, has effectively changed health behaviors among stigmatized populations, such as for HIV. This study will determine how to adapt the HOPE online support intervention to increase MAT initiation and sustainment among participants with OUD, assess the intervention’s effectiveness at increasing MAT use among OUD participants recruited online who are not using MAT, and use an implementation science approach to determine the relationship between social network dynamics (e.g., network size), topics discussed on the online community, and behavior change.

Poor medication-assisted treatment (MAT) retention disproportionately affects low-income racial/ethnic minority individuals with opioid use disorder (OUD) and increases risk for relapse; therefore, evidence-based interventions are needed to improve MAT retention. Peer recovery coaches (PRCs), trained individuals with experiences with substance use disorder, may be uniquely suited to address common MAT retention barriers among underserved populations, including stigma, challenges navigating services, housing instability, and other structural and psychosocial factors. Preliminary work by the research team suggests that behavioral activation (BA) by PRCs may be a feasible, scalable reinforcement-based approach for improving MAT retention for low-income minority OUD individuals. The study builds upon the research team’s formative work to adapt and evaluate the effectiveness and implementation of a PRC-delivered BA intervention (Peer Activate) to improve MAT retention for low-income, minority individuals with OUD.

There is evidence that combining mindfulness-based interventions and peer recovery support services with medication-assisted therapy (MAT) to treat opioid use disorders (OUD) reduces substance use, cravings, symptoms of depression and anxiety, and relapse rates, and improves treatment retention, and relationships with treatment providers and social supports. The goal of the present study is to determine the effectiveness of a mindfulness-based intervention that also utilizes peer mentors in addition to professional substance abuse therapists (the Minds and Mentors program [MiMP]) in improving adherence to MAT for OUD and reducing relapse rates in a sample of individuals with OUD who are also on MAT versus a 12-step facilitation (TSF) program. The study hypothesizes that participants in MiMP will demonstrate better adherence; reduced relapse and cravings (primary outcomes measures); reduced depression, anxiety, and stress; improved social support (secondary outcomes measures); and reduced cortisol levels and reactivity to drug cues (exploratory outcome measures).

Pain in the muscles and surrounding connective tissue (myofascial pain) is a significant health concern affecting hundreds of millions of Americans. Understanding and managing myofascial pain has been limited due to a lack of tools to help clinicians diagnose and treat this disorder. While past efforts to understand myofascial pain have focused on impairments in how connective tissues connect to other tissues in the body, this project will use a new imaging technique to study myofascial tissue physical properties, including how they move in the body and their structural stiffness. This research will identify an imaging biomarker to be used in a randomized controlled clinical trial to predict patient responses to a myofascial pain treatment.

Shoulder pain occurs in many patients who are recovering from a stroke. In addition to impairments in the ability to move, persistent shoulder pain contributes to depression, and often reduces quality of life. Although the cause of post-stroke shoulder pain is complex and not completely understood, it is thought to arise in part to damage of muscles and surrounding connective tissues (myofascial tissues) in the shoulder. This project will use advanced medical imaging techniques to create biomarkers of that can reliably identify myofascial tissues. The research will then test the ability of these biomarkers to monitor, and ultimately predict treatment responses in patients with post-stroke shoulder pain in the context of a randomized controlled clinical trial.

Pain in muscles and surrounding connective tissue (myofascial pain) is a significant health concern affecting hundreds of millions of Americans. There is no objective way to identify and measure myofascial pain. This project will address this unmet challenge by developing a robust approach to identify imaging biomarker(s) that can distinguish different states of myofascial pain. The research will then examine the ability of identified biomarker(s) to predict patient responses to a myofascial pain treatment in a randomized controlled clinical trial.

Pain in the muscles and surrounding connective tissue (myofascial pain) is a significant health concern affecting hundreds of millions of Americans.  Myofascial pain is primarily diagnosed by asking people about their amount of pain as well as through a physical examination. Both approaches are imprecise ways to diagnose the specific type of pain a patient is experiencing and what is causing it. This project aims to improve myofascial pain management and treatment by developing ways to measure changes to soft tissues (e.g., muscle, connective tissues, nerves, blood vessels) in people with myofascial pain compared with soft tissues in people who are not in pain. The project will develop an imaging biomarker that can distinguish healthy and diseased soft tissues that may contribute to myofascial pain syndrome. The project will then test the ability of these biomarkers to predict patient outcomes in a randomized controlled clinical trial.

Sickle cell disease is an inherited blood disorder affecting about 100,000 Americans and more than 20 million people worldwide. It is caused by a mutation in the gene for beta-globin that results in the characteristic sickled shape of red blood cells, life-long severe pain, and shortened lifespan. Optimal treatment of  chronic pain from the condition targets psychological factors contributing to pain, such as pain-related anxiety, fear of movement, and depression. This project will interact with patients and their families to revise and test an existing mind–body and behavioral health treatment tool to target the unique needs and preferences of people managing chronic sickle cell disease pain.

More than half of children and adolescents diagnosed with a type of cancer called bone sarcoma experience pain that interferes with daily life. This project will adapt an evidence-based cognitive behavioral therapy mobile app for use with Black and Hispanic adolescents who disproportionately experience pain from this cancer, putting them at risk for opioid misuse. Once fully adapted, this therapy will be paired with a remotely delivered brain stimulation treatment (transcranial direct current stimulation). This research will also examine the impact of patient-reported conditions such as depression, anxiety, and sleep problems, as well as of various social determinants of health, on pain.

This project will use a data-to-action framework to guide implementation of opioid use disorder treatment and harm reduction interventions based on rapid data analysis. It will leverage existing data systems such as Emergency Medical Services (EMS) reports, mobile integrated health case management data, and medical examiner data for near real-time data analyses, visualization, and action planning. This research will collect a range of data (opioid treatment, use of acute care services, morbidity, mortality, incarceration, housing support, and cost benefits) from a sub-acute stabilization center for people at high risk for opioid overdose, including those who have recently overdosed and are referred and transported by EMS teams.

Health services for the treatment of opioid use disorder (OUD) are fragmented in west Chicago, an epicenter for overdose deaths. This project will develop a data-driven opioid response plan involving key partners. These include local health departments, community organizations, health care systems, and people with lived experience. The research will develop a digital screening tool for OUD that can be used in hospitals and their emergency departments. The tool will be built from machine learning of data from electronic health records, the prescription drug monitoring program, and patient-reported measures. The research will test the value of the screening tool for connecting people to treatment and preventing fatal overdoses mortality in local neighborhoods.

Maternal opioid use disorder is the leading cause of death for women who die within a year of giving birth. Many pregnant women do not have access to prenatal care and medications known to be standard of care for opioid use disorder. This project will create, measure, and evaluate costs for an interactive dashboard that collects and analyzes data about maternal, newborn, and infant outcomes for pregnancies affected by opioid use disorder. This research will also monitor mothers’ use of medications for opioid use disorder and the number of infants born with neonatal withdrawal syndrome that require medication treatment.