Author: Michelle Villar

03 Nov ReACH Lab RA Secures Seat at FIU’s MD Program

26 Oct ReACH Lab Member Joins the Miami Recovery Project

ReACH Lab Graduate Student, Julie Cristello, recently became a Board Member of the Miami Recovery Project (MRP). MRP is an emerging Recovery Community Organization working to provide recovery support to individuals in South Florida. This organization is dedicated to the health of the community by providing support and care during difficult times. On September 30^th, they hosted their first event in honor of National Recovery Month. The event provided attendees with information on multiple pathways to recovery, and on stigmatizing language. Due to the efforts put forth by this organization, the mayor, Carlos Giménez, has proclaimed the month of September to be “recovery month” in Miami-Dade county.

For more information on the Miami Recovery Project: https://miamirecoveryproject.org

14 Oct ACE Project PIs Honored with “Faculty Award for Excellence in Engagement”

Congratulations are in order for Dr. Elisa Trucco and Dr. Matthew Sutherland, Co-PIs on the ACE Project, for receiving the “Faculty Award for Excellence in Engagement” following a recommendation from the Faculty Senate Honorary Degree and Awards Committee. This award recognizes excellence in the university’s “Engagement Initiative Program,” which is defined as a formal collaboration between the faculty and a local, regional or global community partner. The award recognizes the interplay among teaching, research, and learning. 

If you would like to attend the 2020 Virtual Faculty Convocation Ceremony tomorrow, October 15th, you can do so using this link from 2:30-4pm. Congratulations to Dr. Trucco and Dr. Sutherland for this amazing accomplishment!

12 Oct ReACH Lab Director Awarded Tenure at Florida International University

02 Oct ReACH Lab Makes Headlines Answering: Can You Overdose on Benadryl?

ReACH Lab director Dr. Elisa Trucco recently contributed to a news article on The Healthy that investigates a recent TikTok “challenge” where children and teens are meant to take high levels of the antihistamine Benadryl in order to hallucinate. But is this a harmless passing fad or can youth overdose on the drug? After a 15-year-old Oklahoma teen died after ingesting too much Benadryl earlier this year, it’s clear this trend is no laughing matter. “Though over the counter, one can overdose on Benadryl,” says Felice Gersh, M.D., who listed multiple potential side effects of not taking proper doses of the antihistamine, such as low blood pressure, major brain effects, or even seizures. 

This “Benadryl challenge” may remind some of the “Tide Pod Challenge” of 2018, where children and teens were eating laundry detergent pods for fun and posting videos of it online. Dr. Trucco says youth partake in dangerous activities like these partially due to brain development, and partially due to a desire for approval from their peers. “Given how the brain develops, adolescents are in a phase of their life where they are primed to act on impulse without thinking through all the potential negative consequences,” explains Dr. Trucco. Brain development combined with the desire for peer approval increases the appeal of potentially life-threatening activities. “Teens don’t necessarily stop to think about how overdosing on a substance could lead to an emergency room visit. They are more tuned into gaining the more immediate likes, views, and followers on social media,” says Dr. Trucco. 

Communications expert Joanna Dodd Massey says parents don’t need to lose hope following yet another dangerous online challenge, suggesting that adults stay transparent and truthful when communicating with their teens about “real dangers stemming from medication, social media, and peer pressure.” Massey says “When parents tackle these tough subjects head-on, with compassion, clarity, and calm, they can make a difference.”

28 Sep Ace Project Presents on Award of COVID-19 Administrative Supplement

FIU-RCMI PI, Dr. Eric Wagner and ACE Project PIs, Dr. Matthew Sutherland and Dr. Elisa Trucco, were recently awarded an NIMHD Administrative Supplement. On September 23rd, 2020, they presented information on their application for an administrative supplement to study the impact of COVID-19-related experiences on mental health, substance use, and the brain among underrepresented youth. This presentation was provided to over 40 researchers virtually as part of FIU’s RCMI Research in Progress Seminar. The supplement is given based on existing grants only, therefore, it provides additional funds for supplemental work. These contributions allow the researchers to continue working on previous, as well as future projects. This additional supplement will be used in efforts to determine interrelations between individual characteristics (e.g. trauma), social influences (e.g. media exposure), and brain factors (e.g., amygdala, striatum) with substance use and mental health measures. This work leverages the ACE Project’s research infrastructure currently in place to delineate antecedents and consequences of e-cigarette use among a predominately Latinx participant sample. The longitudinal study will consist of different time periods (4 assessments over 9 months) to assess an adolescent and their caregiver’s experiences and characteristics that play a role in their mental health or substance use during the COVID19 pandemic using online surveys. Existing pre-pandemic data will also be used to assess changes specific to the pandemic.

Congratulations to our PIs for being granted the additional funds to complete this important study in hopes of better understanding how COVID-19 has impacted our South Florida community. The presentation can be viewed here.

17 Sep ACE Project PIs Join Outreach Program as Virtual Faculty Members

ACE Project PIs Dr. Elisa Trucco and Dr. Matthew Sutherland have recently joined the ranks of Campus Outreach Services (COS), which provides a variety of programs intended to educate and enlighten students and adults of all ages. Interested educators or members of the community can choose from topics such as “Alcohol, Drugs, and E-Cigs” or “Mental Health Stress and Anxiety,” and invite qualified members of the COS team to present their desired program. Drs. Trucco and Sutherland will soon be featured as two of COS’s virtual faculty members, meaning they will provide online presentations for any school or group interested in learning about vaping and the effects of nicotine on the brain. Drs. Trucco and Sutherland recently gave a presentation moderated by COS Development Director Katie Koestner; you can find a clip of this recording here, which will be featured on the COS website in order to allow those interested in the topic of vaping to preview the presentation. 

Congratulations to both our ACE Project PIs for continuing to engage in community outreach in the hopes of educating youth on the facts of vaping and e-cigarettes! 

04 Sep Study Reveals Half of Illinois High Schoolers are Vaping

According to an article written by “Journal Courier,” a 2019 study administered by the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported half of Illinois high school students are using electronic tobacco products. This increasing trend of product use in Illinois is related to the total usage worldwide, which played a factor in declaring electronic tobacco use an “epidemic.” The fight to end the use of traditional cigarettes, cigars, and smokeless tobacco “has always been a multiprong approach,” says Shana Crews, an Illinois government relations director for the American Cancer Society Action Network. Many smoke-free laws have been put in place and funds have been increased for educational programs to end traditional smoking nationwide. However, in the state of Illinois, e-cigarettes are not included in the ban placed towards smoking in all public areas. To make matters worse, the new legislative proposals to place a ban on the flavored e-cigarette products were not addressed by the General Assembly this session in Illinois. Shana Crews performed an analysis where she identified the main problem in existing initiatives to promote awareness of the harms of e-cigarette usage — funding for cessation programs was the result. According to Crews analysis, the CDC recommended that Illinois spend $136.7 million on initiatives, but they only spend $9.1 million. The CDC survey concluded with alarming results, indicating that half of the Illinois high school students surveyed did not seek efforts to stop the use of tobacco products. Lissa Lacasse, president of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network said, “There is no safe level of use of tobacco products, and no reason for a child to be using an e-cigarette.”

28 Aug ACE Project PIs Host “Brake the Vape” Webinar

On June 1st, the ACE Project team, in collaboration with the United Way of Broward County Commission on Behavioral Health & Drug Prevention, hosted an educational presentation via Zoom Webinar. This was a special event organized by Youth Action Team’s Brake The Vape Taskforce. ACE Project Principal Investigators, Dr. Elisa Trucco and Dr. Matthew Sutherland provided a presentation on the harms associated with e-cigarette use. In addition, the presentation described the ACE Project that included  accomplishments, outreach efforts, preliminary findings, as well as new initiatives to over 50 attendees (82 registered). The webinar can be viewed below:

21 Aug Study Reveals Teens and Young Adults Who Vape, are at a Higher Risk of COVID-19

A recent study completed by Stanford University found teens and young adults that vape and smoke cigarettes are seven times more likely to be diagnosed with COVID-19 than an individual who does not, while only vaping increases the risk by five times. The researchers do not know how the chances of contracting the illness are increased; vaping and smoking may affect the respiratory or immune systems, or it may be due to the tendency to share devices in social settings. As the pandemic progresses there has been a rise in the number of younger individuals being diagnosed, which has concerned public health officials. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the proportion of young people being diagnosed with COVID-19 has skyrocketed, with the percentage of cases among those aged 15-24 tripling from 4.5 percent in February to 15 percent in July. The authors of the paper hope the results of the study raise awareness towards the young vapers’ vulnerability to COVID-19 and inform regulators of the potential harm of vaping products. An assistant professor (not involved in the study) in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering at John Hopkins University, Ana Maria Rule, says “I don’t think anybody will be shocked at the results. I think people will say we saw this coming.” She says this due to the known fact that both COVID-19 and electronic cigarettes affect the lungs. The results may not be surprising, but Rule says this could be a sign that “[vaping] actually could have short term health effects.” The efforts of this study were to get the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to control access of e-cigarettes, as well as promote the link of COVID-19 and vaping in the adolescent community.