big thanks to the thoughtful reviewers, very helpful editorial team at Nature Mental Health, our wonderful collaborators, and each and every person who made this possible -- and huge congrats to first author Michael Apostol!
effects on affect (😵💫) more broadly. there are a few more really cool additional findings in the paper which I will not spoil for you! read on and if you can't access reach out to one of us.
he found through a careful mediation analysis that craving and withdrawal symptoms are strongly correlated with anxiety symptoms -- but dlPFC stimulation only relieves craving and withdrawal, and this is not mediated by reductions in anxiety, or
does neuromodulation to dlPFC only reduce craving and withdrawal because it's improving underlying mood problems (like anxiety, which often heightens during withdrawal)? or is it having a unique effect on craving (separate from well-known effects on mood)?
I tried to get the study re-started on my own but a lab of 1 is not sustainable. so in April 2022 Michael started, and recruitment took off. after just a few months in the lab, Michael said he had a hypothesis he was interested in testing:
data collection for this project started in 2019, and was really starting to get momentum around February 2020 🙃everything stopped, a lot of bad things happened, and then I got the keys to my own lab in the summer of 2021
www.nature.com/articles/s44... my lab's first data paper is here 🤩 do you love neuromodulation, treating substance use disorders, persevering through a pandemic, or superstar trainees? if so, read on!
I am hyped to develop this finding to hopefully improve neuromodulation for SUDs -- and very very proud of the teamwork that made this discovery possible 😊💪. stop by and chat with Michael at SFN to learn more!
but one checked out! insula connectivity at baseline (before any brain stimulation) was significantly higher in responders than nonresponders. we also found (in exploratory analyses) that responders had higher baseline craving and expired carbon monoxide levels. (3/)