Faculty Research

Substance Abuse Research Programs

The ADARP Program is not a department on campus and does not make faculty appointments. Faculty associated with the program reside in departments across the WSU campus and are united by a common interest in the biological and sociological mechanisms of substance abuse. Research programs range from examining abuse patterns in Washington State to determining changes in gene expression following cocaine or alcohol administration to experimental animals.

Faculty Researchers

• Metabolic & homeostatic systems
• Molecular & cellular neuroscience

• Children’s social development
• Media and parents in children’s decision making about substance abuse.
• Media literacy prevention programs

• Perinatal substance use
• Substance use across the lifespan
• Substance use related to cognitive decline, sex/gender differences

• Molecular & cellular neuroscience
• Sensory neuroscience & pain

• Neurobiological mechanisms of drug addiction and obesity

• Sustaining recovery among youth and emerging adults
• Developing Health Interventions to prevent relapse

• Dissemination and Implementation Science
• Translational Research
• Evidence-based Program Sustainability
• Evidence-based Program Adaptation
• Prevention Workforce Development

• Sex differences in drug effects; gonadal hormone modulation of pain and analgesia.

• Influence of Cannabis on Cognition
• Mental Health
• Stress

• Chronic alcohol exposure on drug metabolism
• Cytochrome P450-dependent signaling

• Emotion, motivation, reward & addiction
• Reproductive biology

• Smoking cessation
• Opioid use disorder
• Insomnia
• Sleep physiology
• Neurobehavioral Performance

• Epidemiology of intimate partner violence and sexual assault
• Violence in small towns
• Rural crime and justice
• Environmental criminology
• Public health approaches to alcohol and drug policy

• Emotion, motivation, reward & addiction
• Molecular & cellular neuroscience
• Pharmacology
• Systems biology

• Emotion, motivation, reward & addiction
• Molecular & cellular neuroscience
• Pharmacology
• Systems biology

• Opioid enforcement
• DWI enforcement

• Cannabis

• Prevention of substance use/misuse

• Drug courts and their effectiveness in increasing sobriety and reducing recidivism for adult felons, juvenile delinquents, and for parents whose children have become dependent on the state.

• Neural basis of pain modulation and morphine tolerance.

• Pharmacology of medical gases

• Statistics/methodology
• Substance abuse
• Voluntary associations and organizations

• Research tracks changes over time and group differences in alcohol and drug use
• Social and legal consequences, and correlates of substance abuse

• Intersection between policy/regulation, perspective authority, and scope of practice.
• Interest in medical cannabis and healthcare practices related to controlled substances.

• Opioid use disorder and withdrawal
• Cannabis and Pain.

• Alcohol use disorder
• Mechanisms of cannabis actions
• Impacts of drugs of abuse on brain development and/or during chronic use in adults

• Impact of drugs of abuse on cardiac muscle function.

• Media literacy associates with lower disinformation beliefs and that disinformation beliefs are associated with problematic substance use.