Researcher(s)
- Chandler Morrell, Psychology, University of Delaware
Faculty Mentor(s)
- Philip Gable, Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Delaware
Abstract
According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), 16.5% of Americans met the criteria for substance use disorder within the past year. Substance use disorder devastates thousands of lives per year, rapidly increasing in recent years. Impulsivity is a historically prominent factor connected within the substance use literature as it enables researchers to make inferences concerning prognosis, recovery outcomes, and likelihood of relapse. This study aims to draw connections between personality variables such as impulsivity and neural correlates associated with substance use disorder. Participants were sampled from the Blueprints for Addiction Recovery center in Mount Joy, Pennsylvania. Each participant was actively enrolled in the Chapter 1 program, a 28-day integrated treatment where clients are housed, take part in daily support groups, and receive psychiatric services to aid in recovery. Within the experimental design, data is collected via medical records, personality questionnaires, electroencephalography (EEG) recordings, and a monetary incentive delay (MID) task. The medical records and personality questionnaires establish information such as past experiences, drug(s) of abuse, and comorbid disorders which are characterized by impulsive behavior. Additionally, the EEG recordings and MID task create behavioral and physiological data which is used to study the neural correlates implicated in substance use disorder. As a result, the combination of physiological, behavioral, and personality variables allow us to draw connections among three separate domains to investigate impulsive behavior. This poster presentation serves as a reflection on the experience of working with individuals recovering from substance use disorder as well the progression of the study. Preliminary results will be presented to show early trends in the data collected thus far.