Merideth Addicott, Ph.D., joined the Center for Addiction Research’s research faculty in 2017. Her background is in studying how psychoactive drugs affect people’s mood, behavior, and decision making. She has studies the short-, and long-term effects of alcohol, caffeine, nicotine, methylphenidate, and opioids.
Addicott’s current research is focused on nicotine and tobacco use disorder. Tobacco addiction overlaps with many problems, such as other substance use disorders, psychiatric disorders, and socioeconomic disparities. People affected by these problems continue to smoke at high rates while smoking rates among the general population have declined. She is excited about finding new ways to understand and fight tobacco addiction in order to help reduce smoking rates in these special populations. Addicott uses a variety of tools such as self-report questionnaires, ecological momentary assessment, computerized decision making tasks, and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
Ongoing projects are investigating:
- How individual differences in distress tolerance and its neural correlates relate to the ability to quit smoking.
- New medications that may affect individuals’ tobacco use
- How individual differences in electronic-cigarette use can be best measured
Click here for more information about Addicott’s ongoing research.
Publications
Addicott MA, Pearson, JM, Schechter JC, Sapyta JJ, Weiss MD, Kollins SH. “Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and the explore/exploit trade-off.” Neuropsychopharmacology 2020.
Addicott MA, Wardle MC, Selig JP (2020). “Effort-based decision making varies by smoking status.” Psychopharmacology 237:1081-1090. doi: 10.1007/s00213-019-05437-3
Addicott MA, Schechter JC, Sapyta JJ, Selig JP, Kollins SH, Weiss MD (2019) “Methylphenidate increases willingness to perform effort in adults with ADHD.” Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior 183:14-21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pbb.2019.06.008
Addicott MA, Luber B, Nguyen D, Palmer H, Lisanby SH, Appelbaum LG (2019). “Low and high frequency rTMS on resting-state functional connectivity between the postcentral gyrus and the insula.” Brain Connectivity 9:322-328. doi: 10.1089/brain.2018.0652
Addicott MA, Sweitzer MM, McClernon FJ (2019). “The effects of nicotine and tobacco use on brain reward function: Interaction with nicotine dependence severity.” Nicotine & Tobacco Research 21:764-771. DOI:10.1093/ntr/nty059.
Addicott MA, Daughters SB, Strauman TJ, Appelbaum LG (2018). “Distress tolerance to auditory feedback and functional connectivity with the auditory cortex.” Psychiatric Research: Neuroimaging 282:1-10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pscychresns.2018.10.003