Stigma associated with substance use disorders is strong in the US, yet research aiming to understand and address this form of stigma is limited. Our lab is working on several projects related to stigma and substance use.

Current Projects

With funding from an award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (K01DA042881) and in partnership with Brandywine Counseling and Community Services, we developed a disclosure intervention called “Disclosing Recovery: A Decision Aid and Toolkit”. The intervention helps people in treatment from opioid use disorder make key decisions surrounding disclosures (including whether, why, what, how, and when to disclose) and build skills for disclosure. We pilot tested the intervention in 2022-2023 (read more about the pilot here). With funding from a new award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01DA059557), we are currently working with Brandywine Counseling and Community Services to test the intervention as a Phase II Efficacy study.

We work closely with the Addiction Policy Forum on the Anti-Stigma Initiative. The Initiative involves partnerships with communities throughout the United States to assess levels of community stigma and deliver programs to reduce stigma.

Past Projects

Disclosure of one’s substance use disorder recovery status to others can expose people to stigma, which may undermine their recovery efforts, and/or social support, which may facilitate their recovery efforts. We have studied disclosure processes among people receiving treatment for opioid use disorders to understand which aspects of disclosures relate to stigma vs. social support and inform the development of an intervention to help people disclose their substance use disorder recovery status in ways that minimize risk of stigma and maximize access to social support from others. This project was funded by an award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (K01DA042881). Learn more about the results of this study here and here.

We have explored experiences of stigma among young people receiving treatment for substance use disorders and their caregivers. Stigma experienced by both young people themselves and their caregivers may undermine recovery. This project involved qualitative interviews with young people and caregivers, and was funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (K12HS022986). Read about the results of this study in this paper.

We collaborated with Jennifer Carrano, PhD at UD and atTAack addiction to evaluate barriers to and facilitators of recovery, including stigma, among people with substance use disorders who were living in recovery houses in Delaware.