The GENDAAR 2.0 study is part of the Autism Center of Excellence (ACE Network), which includes researchers from across the country. The main goal of this follow up study is to investigate the transition through adolescence and into young adulthood. We aim to identify sex differences in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and look at their brain development during this important transition. We will compare the data collected with individuals with ASD, to siblings of children with ASD and children with no family history of ASD. We will use a variety of methods: neuropsychological testing, EEG, fMRI, and genetics. By learning more about sex differences, we aim to improve techniques for diagnosis and interventions.
Patient Population: Adults
Connectivity in the Brain and Autism (COBRA) Study
The COBRA study seeks to identify the specific neural circuits that are altered in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Our experiments test the strength of “divisive normalization”, a measure that describes how neurons in the brain suppress each other. Our hypothesis is that suppressive interactions are reduced in individuals with ASD. Because suppressive neural interactions are well understood in the visual system, we use it as a model system. Suppressive neural interactions are measured in response to precisely controlled visual stimuli with a variety of brain measures including functional MRI to index neural responses, diffusion MRI to describe their anatomical connections, and EEG to understand their dynamics.
The Life Enhancing Alcohol-management Program 2.0 (LEAP 2.0)
LEAP 2.0 builds on a longstanding partnership between the UW HaRRT Center and housing first residents, staff, and management of DESC. The pilot program was developed through a community based participatory research framework, and entails low-barrier, community-level, house-wide resident programming—including leadership opportunities, activities, and pathways to recovery. Results from the pilot indicated that LEAP participants reported more engagement in meaningful activities than their control counterparts. Further, higher levels of engagement with the LEAP predicted significant reductions in alcohol use and alcohol-related harm. To build on these promising findings, in LEAP 2.0, we will be conducting a 10-site, cluster-randomized controlled trial to assess LEAPs impact on substance use, health, cost and service utilization, as well as quality of life outcomes.
HIPPOCRATIC App study
The overall goal of this project is to develop a cell phone app that provides continuous assessment of Warfighter health readiness in real time. We are a subcontractor to Warfighter Analytics using Smart Phones for Health (WASH) program and Charles Rivers Analytics for the subject recruitment portion of the overall project.
The UW objective is to recruit 25,000 participants from across the United States to test a newly designed cell phone app named Health & Injury Prediction and Prevention Over Complex Reasoning and Analytic Techniques Integrated on a Cell Phone App (HIPPOCRATIC App) which gathers real-time data measuring an individual’s latent or developing health disorders with a focus on infectious disease and traumatic brain injury. The app is being developed to more effectively assess Warfighter combat/mission readiness and faster, more targeted healthcare delivery for both civilians and Warfighters.
Estia: computerized intervention targeting cognitive control deficits in depressed adults
Project: EVO (or “EVO”) is a mobile 3D video game that has been shown to reduce older adults’ susceptibility to interference by augmenting sustained attention and working memory abilities (e.g. cognitive control) through targeted adaptive algorithms. The combination of peer-reviewed validity, adaptivity, and fun video game mechanics elevates the EVO platform beyond other at-home training tools while reducing burden associated with tedious task replication. We propose to study EVO as a potential intervention for the treatment of depression, a disorder that worsens medical outcomes, promotes disability, increases expense, and complicates medical care by clouding the clinical picture and undermining treatment adherence.
Improving usability
While evidence-based psychosocial interventions (EBPIs) are important, their design is cumbersome, complex, overwhelming, inflexible, and minimizes factors that are crucial for quality delivery of care.
This study will work with six FQHCs across MT that were recently reorganized under Bighorn Valley Health Center’s umbrella to involve their Therapists and Care Managers in the redesign of an intervention to address their unique patient population and to capitalize on their task sharing model.
Project STEP
This project is designed to integrate basic and clinical science to translate mechanisms of recovery from PTSD to testing an intervention in individuals with PTSD and marijuana use. We will recruit 72 individuals with PTSD and varying levels of marijuana use, 36 with current heavy marijuana use and 36 without current marijuana use, to complete a conditional discrimination and extinction task in order to understand the relationship between marijuana and fear learning in individuals with pathological fear. Following this task, participants will receive a brief 6 session imaginal exposure protocol (IE) to explore whether this adapted short form treatment shows increased feasibility (efficacy, reduced drop out) for individuals with co-occurring PTSD and marijuana use. We will also be able to test the link between basic fear and recovery processes by looking at the extinction task as a predictor of treatment response for individuals with and without marijuana use. This research is significant in its potential to identify a predictor of treatment response, to test an underlying mechanism of recovery for PTSD in individuals with PTSD and co-occurring marijuana use, and to test feasibility of a novel intervention for a difficult to treat population.
mHealth Washington
The mHealth Washington team is partnering with 20 community agencies to implement FOCUS in multiple counties throughout Washington State. This implementation effectiveness trial aims to evaluate strategies to integrate mHealth into real-world clinical practice. The team is comprised of multi-discipline experts including academic researchers, policy makers, mental health advocates, Medicaid leaders and individuals with lived experience.
mHealth in West Africa: developing an evidence-based psychosocial intervention toolkit
There is a shortage of skilled mental health providers in Ghana. Due to the prevalence of traditional faith healers, coupled with the established infrastructure that faith healers in Ghana have, global mental health leaders have argued that these paraprofessionals may be leveraged as conduits of basic illness management strategies.
This study aims to: 1) Employ user-centered mixed-method rapid ethnographic data collection strategies to conduct a targeted needs assessment, and 2) Distill and integrate findings from all data sources to identify content and usability requirements for a human-centered, culturally/contextually-informed multi-media mHealth toolkit for healers.
Mobile RDoC: Using smartphone technology to understand Auditory Verbal Hallucinations (AVH)
Using a mobile data collection system that leverages smartphone technology to capture an abundance of time-varying information both passively (i.e., behavioral sensing) and actively (e.g., Ecological Momentary Assessment or EMA) we aim to: 1) Evaluate whether need for care is associated with real-time/real-place AVH experience; 2) Examine relationships between baseline demographic and functional variables, time-varying social and contextual factors, and AVH; 3) Test relationships posited in a cognitive model of AVH.
