ABOUT US

Bruno's main research interests include the cognitive consequences of use of medications and illicit drugs; illicit drug market trends; and approaches to reduce the harms associated with substance use. He has active research collaborations with key national research centres in the substance use field and holds a conjoint positions at the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales.

Bruno has significant experience in coordination of large scale multi-site studies. This includes a decade of work contributing to the national Illicit Drug Reporting System and Ecstasy and Related Drug Reporting System studies, which involve recruitment of large numbers (>800) of substance consumers per annum. These projects are key components of Australia's monitoring systems for substance use and make strong contributions to Australian drug policy at local and national levels.

To view Bruno's full academic profile, click here.

Thomas is a PhD candidate investigating alcohol use in naturalistic settings. 

Real-world drinking behaviours are notoriously difficult to capture accurately due to the varied and complex environments they occur in. Understanding when and how people drink while “out”, as well as the outcomes of this behaviour, is an important step in informing and designing health promotion initiatives and interventions. 

Thomas aims to unpack how we best assess alcohol related consumption, intoxication and impairment in these settings. Specifically, he is investigating the simultaneous use of biometric, ambulatory and cognitive assessments to monitor alcohol consumers over prolonged drinking sessions in real-world settings.

Jane is currently studying the ways in which mental function is impacted when people take strong opioid pain medications over a period of time. For example, do people who are prescribed opioids experience more frequent memory problems than people who experience chronic pain but do not take opioids?

Do you experience regular pain? Jane is currently recruiting for a lab study on how opioid meds affect cognitive function in people who experience chronic pain. Her study comprises two lab sessions held in Sandy Bay over the course of 3 months. The sessions go for 60-90 minutes each, and involve completing cognitive tasks (e.g., reaction time, attention) and answering questions about pain and general health. Reimbursement is $80 cash. The main inclusion criteria are:

• Age 18-65;

• Currently experience regular pain (e.g., daily or almost daily) that interferes with regular activities and/or requires medication (including over the counter meds like paracetamol);

• either i) takes strong prescription opioids daily, or ii) does not take opioids, and hasn’t taken them for minimum 3 months

• Don’t take strong opioids (no/minimal use in past 3 months) or benzodiazepines;

• Don’t have a current cancer diagnosis;

• Are able to attend 2x 60-90 min lab sessions in Sandy Bay.

If you want to know more, please access the online screening questionnaire here.

A small body of literature suggests benzodiazepines (e.g., prescription sedative drugs), particularly high potency forms (e.g., alprazolam/xanax) are associated with criminality. However, the reasons for use and motives for offending, remains to be fully investigated or understood. This may be attributed to the difficulty in isolating the role of benzodiazepine use in criminal activity among a substance using population due to the increased presence of extraneous factors. For example, the presence of polysubstance use, engaging in criminal behaviours to fund further drug use, and demographic factors (e.g., low socio-economic status, psychological distress, social and familial context) may increase the likelihood for criminal involvement. A method for addressing this limitation is utilising a case-crossover design. This allows for the investigation of the relationship between benzodiazepine use and acute triggers from crime while reducing the influence of extraneous factors by using participants as their own controls. The design compares general benzodiazepine use/criminal activity with benzodiazepine use immediately prior to a hazardous event (e.g., most recent crime). No research to date has utilised a case-crossover design to examine the relationship between benzodiazepine (alprazolam) use and crime among offenders. Hannah aims to examine the effects of benzodiazepine use upon the occurrence of criminal activity. A case-crossover design will be utilised with cases being a sample of offenders who use benzodiazepines. Hannah's study aims to compare benzodiazepine use in the 12-24 hours prior to a crime event (hazard period) with general benzodiazepine use (control period). The type of crime, type of benzodiazepine being used, and polydrug use will be compared. 

After 12 years in the Government Security sector, Lisa has turned her attention to psychology. Using her expertise in detecting deception she completed an Honours degree at UTas in 2018 researching the cognitive workload associated with telling lies. Her current research involves investigating the lived experience of mental health issues within the psychology profession. Her research interests include improving public health policy and improving methods of diagnosis and treatment for complex mental health disorders.

Erin and her colleagues have made a new mobile/tablet test of processing speed, based on the traditional pencil and paper WAIS Symbol Search subtest. They are validating it against the WAIS and the penscreen Digit Symbol Substitution test, as well as looking at it's sensitivity to acute intoxication effects (alcohol) and learning effects.

Tanya Wilson’s current research project is aimed at developing a brief measure of impulsivity that will be used as a behavioural marker of readiness for treatment of substance use disorder. A facet of impulsivity, delay discounting, refers to the tendency that rewards lose value as time of receipt increases. Discounting future rewards due to temporal proximity is similar to the pattern of behaviour apparent in substance use disorders, whereby people preference smaller short-term rewards of the drugs’ effect over long-term rewards that come with no longer using drugs. Delay discounting rates have been found to predict abstinence and substance use disorder severity. Developing a brief and valid measure of delay discounting will help identify people in need of specialised treatment interventions.

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If you want to know more, please access the online screening questionnaire, click here!

Megan's current research is based on the how cognition is an important predictor of how well people do in treatment for drug and alcohol problems. Understanding the cognitive processes underlying addiction is imperative for developing successful treatment interventions to promote rehabilitation and reduce the risk of relapse.

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In particular, Megan is interested in the process of inhibitory control. Inhibitory control is the ability to inhibit a prepotent response, instead utilising a response that is more appropriate or desirable. In the context of substance use, it is claimed that impaired inhibitory control is associated with more frequent use, larger dosages, and failed attempts to reduce and control use. Consequently, impaired inhibitory control is argued to be predictive of impulsive behaviour and risk of relapse in substance use disorders.

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Current reliable and valid measures of inhibitory control are expensive, restricted and not accessible to frontline workers. In addition, these measures are tedious to complete and are susceptible to practice effects. Resultantly, Megan and her collegues have developed a more interesting inhibitory control task for mobiles and tablets based on a ‘serious games’ approach to enhance engagement and promote free accessibility to frontline workers. Their proposed measure of inhibitory control is based on a whack-a-mole concept; a version of a Go/No-Go paradigm, and is subsequently named ‘Whack-a-Bottle’. Megan and her team aim to validate our Whack-a-Bottle task against two gold standard measures of inhibitory control and test its sensitivity to retesting. In addition, they also aim to test the Whack-a-Bottle’s sensitivity to impairment from alcohol.

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If you want to know more, please access the online screening questionnaire, click here!