This study is interested in learning about how participating with a peer in a health program might impact brain response and health behavior change in emerging adults over time. Its unique design allows us to team up participants for a virtual health session and a simultaneous brain scan using noninvasive neuroimaging techniques. Recruitment begins in early 2024 through the University of Texas at Dallas Center for BrainHealth.

Funded by DHHS NIH NIAAA R01 AA030678

ANCHoR has partnered with area schools to learn more about how teens and young adults make decisions that affect their well-being and health, and to test a program to help empower and support teens in making positive decisions for themselves, their peers, and their wider communities. This is a small pilot project that will serve as the foundation for larger projects in the future.

The purpose of this study is to examine adolescent health risk behaviors, such as substance use, and how to best create interventions to reduce these behaviors and their associated harms for adolescents and young adults. Data collection for this study is complete and analyses are ongoing.

Funded by DHHS NIH NIAAA R01 AA023658

This study is focused on improving our understanding of pain and pain treatment in adolescents, and is enrolling teens and parents to learn more about their experiences with pain and pain management. Data collection is ongoing through the Advancing Research in Pediatric Pain (ARPP) Lab and ANCHoR.

Funded by DHHS NIH NIDA R01 DA044778

This K24 award supports the development of novel treatment approaches to adolescent addiction. This project harnesses existing brain and behavior data from teens to better understand structural and functional brain differences in youth who do and do not respond to existing health interventions, in an effort to identify neural targets for new clinical treatments.

Funded by DHHS NIH NIAAA K24 AA026876

We Test 2.0 enrolled young men who have sex with men in New York City, Detroit, and San Diego to learn more about sexual health, and barriers and facilitators to participation in a couple’s intervention that focuses on HIV testing. Dr. Feldstein Ewing is one of two Principal Investigators overseeing this project at multiple clinic sites around the country. More information is available at the Promoting Resilience, Intersectionality, Diversity, and Equity (PRIDE) in Health Research Consortium website.

Funded by DHHS NIH NICHD U19 HD089875

OHSU is one of 21 sites around the country participating in the ABCD study, which is the largest long-term study of child and adolescent brain development and health in the US. In total, 11,880 youth will share behavioral and biological data with researchers to help disentangle the relationships between childhood experiences, brain development, and long term outcomes. Learn more about the ABCD study at the official ABCD website. 

Funded by DHHS NIH NIDA U01 DA041148

There are many behaviors that young people engage in, some of which may put individuals at a greater risk for HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections and diseases. DASH is designed to investigate the types of behaviors that put youth at risk for these health concerns, with the goal of determining what types of programs work best to help reduce these behaviors. Investigators will use information about participants’ behavior, genetics, and brain structure and function to help answer these research questions. Data collection for this study is complete, and analyses are ongoing.

Funded by DHHS NIH NINR R01 NR013332

Though not a research study in the traditional sense, Science of Change is an annual academic conference designed to integrate basic neuroscience research with applied psychotherapy research with the goal of improving treatments for addictive behaviors. This conference series fosters cross-disciplinary collaboration to investigate and apply mechanisms of behavior change. Our 3rd and final annual meeting occurred in May of 2017, but our lab remains dedicated to developing collaborations and publishing translational work in this area.

Stream the 2015 – 2017 conferences on the Science of Change YouTube channel.

Funded by DHHS NIH NIAAA R13 AA023455