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Newswise — A newly discovered feedback loop involving estrogen may explain why women might become dependent on nicotine more quickly and with less nicotine exposure than men. The research could lead to new treatments for women who are having trouble quitting nicotine-containing products such as cigarettes.

Sally Pauss is a doctoral student at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine in Lexington. She led the project.

“Studies show that women have a higher propensity to develop addiction to nicotine than men and are less successful at quitting,” said Pauss, who is working under the supervision of Terry D. Hinds Jr., an associate professor. “Our work aims to understand what makes women more susceptible to nicotine use disorder to reduce the gender disparity in treating nicotine addiction.”

The researchers found that the sex hormone estrogen induces the expression of olfactomedins, proteins that are suppressed by nicotine in key areas of the brain involved in reward and addiction. The findings suggest that estrogen–nicotine–olfactomedin interactions could be targeted with therapies to help control nicotine consumption.

Pauss will present the research at Discover BMB, the annual meeting of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, which will be held March 23–26 in San Antonio.

“Our research has the potential to better the lives and health of women struggling with substance use,” she said. “If we can confirm that estrogen drives nicotine seeking and consumption through olfactomedins, we can design drugs that might block that effect by targeting the altered pathways. These drugs would hopefully make it easier for women to quit nicotine.”

For the new study, the researchers used large sequencing datasets of estrogen-induced genes to identify genes that are expressed in the brain and exhibit a hormone function. They found just one class of genes that met these criteria: those coding for olfactomedins. They then performed a series of studies with human uterine cells and rats to better understand the interactions between olfactomedins, estrogen and nicotine. The results suggested that estrogen activation of olfactomedins — which is suppressed when nicotine is present — might serve as a feedback loop for driving nicotine addiction processes by activating areas of the brain’s reward circuitry such as the nucleus accumbens.

The researchers are now working to replicate their findings and definitively determine the role of estrogen. This knowledge could be useful for those taking estrogen in the form of oral contraceptives or hormone replacement therapy, which might increase the risk of developing a nicotine use disorder.

The investigators also want to determine the exact olfactomedin-regulated signaling pathways that drive nicotine consumption and plan to conduct behavioral animal studies to find out how manipulation of the feedback loop affects nicotine consumption.

Sally Pauss will present this research during a poster session from 4:30–6:30 p.m. CDT on Monday, March 25, in the exhibit hall of the Henry B. González Convention Center (Poster Board No. 152) (abstract). Contact the media team for more information or to obtain a free press pass to attend the meeting.

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About the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB)

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BYLINE: Patti Zielinski

Newswise — People who identify as lesbian, gay and bisexual – particularly women – respond more positively to tobacco marketing, are more inclined to smoke cigarettes daily and may have a more difficult time quitting, according to two studies by a Rutgers Health researcher.

The studies, published in the Annals of LGBTQ Public and Population Health and Preventive Medicine Reports, investigated how some among the LGBTQ population respond to tobacco marketing, how they use tobacco and their history of quitting using two large national datasets, including the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health Study and the National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

Ollie Ganz, a faculty member at the Rutgers Institute for Nicotine and Tobacco Studies and an assistant professor at the Rutgers School of Public Health who is lead author of the studies, discussed the significance of the findings to future policy.

Why is specifically studying how sexual minority populations receive tobacco marketing important?

From previous studies, we know that sexual minority individuals are more likely to use tobacco products than heterosexual individuals. This may be because tobacco companies have targeted this population with advertising and promotions, but the impact of this has not been studied extensively. The main thing we wanted to understand in this study is, given that sexual minority individuals are exposed to more tobacco advertising than heterosexual individuals, are there also differences in terms of how receptive they are to the ads, such as having a positive response to the ads.

What did your study find regarding tobacco marketing among sexual minority individuals?

What was unique about our study is that we were able to look at subsets of the LGB population – gay men, bisexual men, lesbian/gay women and bisexual women – rather than looking at them as one group. By looking at these subgroups we discovered that lesbian/gay and bisexual women were more likely to be receptive to marketing for tobacco products overall, and that bisexual women – but not lesbian/gay women – were more likely to be receptive to marketing for cigarettes, cigars, e-cigarettes and smokeless tobacco, compared with heterosexual women.  

Among men, we discovered that gay men, but not bisexual men, were more likely to be receptive to cigar advertising compared with heterosexual men. We also found that gay and bisexual men were more likely to be receptive to e-cigarette advertising compared with heterosexual men.

In the Preventive Medicine Reports study, you also looked at subsets of the LGB population, but focused on cigarette use behaviors. What were your findings?

We discovered that sexual minority women – particularly bisexual women – are smoking at higher rates and are having a harder time quitting compared with heterosexual women. We also found that the differences in prevalence of cigarette smoking between lesbian/gay and bisexual women and heterosexual women was much greater than between the prevalence between sexual minority men and heterosexual men.

These findings show that we need more support to specifically help sexual minority women quit smoking –particularly bisexual women. This population presents unique challenges, such as greater mental health problems, and there is a need for more resources and tailored interventions to support them in quitting smoking.

How can these findings inform future policy?

In order for tobacco control policies and regulations and public education campaigns to be effective, they need to be able to identify the populations that are at greatest risk for tobacco use. They also need a body of evidence that identifies the factors that are driving elevated use among those populations so effective messages and policies can be developed that directly address those factors.

Newswise — (SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — More and more states in the U.S. are legalizing recreational cannabis, leading to concerns that teen use will increase. Tobacco consumption among high school students, including vaping and e-cigarettes, is a concerning 12.6%, although trending downward.

Researchers at UC Davis were interested in learning how the combined use of these two products — cannabis and tobacco — might impact high school students in California.

In a new study published in The Journal of Pediatrics, they found high school students who use both tobacco and cannabis products miss more school and have lower grades compared to students who don’t use either product or who use the products individually (tobacco or cannabis) but don’t combine them.

“Substance use is a main predictor of educational outcomes, including absenteeism,” said Melanie Dove, an assistant adjunct professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences and first author of the paper. “These results highlight the need for comprehensive efforts to prevent and reduce substance use from both cannabis and tobacco products among youth.”

California survey reveals students’ tobacco and cannabis use

The researchers analyzed data from the 2021-22 California Healthy Kids Survey. The anonymous, confidential survey administered by the California Department of Education asks questions about wellness, resiliency, school climate and safety. The study reviewed responses from 287,653 high school students in ninth and 11th grade.

The researchers found that among high school students in California:

• 3.7% use tobacco and cannabis
• 3.7% use cannabis only
• 1.7% use tobacco only

Students who used both tobacco and cannabis reported the highest percentage of absenteeism. On average, they missed three days of school in the past month — almost one and a half more days of absenteeism than teens who didn’t use both products.

Students who co-used tobacco and cannabis were also more likely to have lower grades than students who did not use either product.

Using an 8-point scale with an 8 representing mostly A’s and 1 representing F’s, they found the average grade for students who did not use cannabis or tobacco was 6.24, or mostly B’s.

By comparison, average grades for students who used both cannabis and tobacco were about half a grade lower, at 5.08 or mostly B- and C’s.

Students who used either cannabis or tobacco, but not both, also had slightly lower grades than nonusers: students who only used tobacco had an average grade of 5.61 (mostly B’s), and students who only used cannabis had an average grade of 5.54 (mostly B’s).

Harmful effects on student health

The U.S. Surgeon General released a report describing the health risks of e-cigarettes on youth and young adults. It explains how habits formed in youth, when the brain is still developing and learning, can result in teens getting addicted more easily.

“We know that using tobacco and cannabis puts young people at risk for longer-term addiction, behavioral issues and respiratory health problems,” said Elisa Tong, a co-author of the study. Tong is a physician at UC Davis Health and director of the Tobacco Cessation Policy Research Center. “For young people who are not current users but are exposed to use by others, the aerosol from these products is not harmless, and contains potentially harmful chemicals, heavy metals and fine particulates,” Tong said.

Schools and parents can help prevent tobacco use

The researchers noted some limitations of their study. The survey is not representative of all high school students in California. Students who were absent on the day of the survey were not included. Another limitation is that the data is based on students’ self-reported responses; even though the survey was anonymous, students may feel uncomfortable sharing their actual substance use or absence patterns and may have underreported them.

Another consideration is that the percentage of California high school students who report using any tobacco product is 6.6%, according to the 2022 California Youth Tobacco Survey. This percentage is well below the national average (12.6%) and may reflect California’s rigorous anti-smoking campaigns and the adoption of non-smoking public spaces dating back to the mid-1990s.

“While certain school factors — like peer pressure — can contribute to teen tobacco and cannabis use, schools also play a critical role in prevention, especially in partnership with families,” said Kevin Gee, a professor at the UC Davis School of Education and senior author of the paper. “One important tool available to California’s schools is the Tobacco Use Prevention Education program that, when strategically invested in intervention and cessation activities, has shown promise in reducing tobacco use among teens.”

Resources

Newswise — ROCHESTER, Minnesota — Hace más de 60 años, un pionero investigador mostró cómo un pulso de electricidad en el cerebro de un toro de carga podría ser utilizado para detener al animal en su trayectoria. Hoy en día, la neuroestimulación se usa para tratar una variedad de enfermedades humanas, incluyendo la enfermedad de Parkinson, temblor, trastorno obsesivo-compulsivo y síndrome de Tourette. Un neurocirujano de Mayo Clinic y sus colegas creen que una forma de tratamiento llamada estimulación cerebral profunda (ECP), está lista para resolver uno de los mayores desafíos de la salud pública: la adicción a las drogas.

“La adicción a las drogas es una enorme y urgente demanda médica”, afirma el Dr. y Ph. D. Kendall Lee, que publicó casi 100 artículos científicos acerca a la ECP juntamente con sus compañeros. La clave para tratarla, afirma, es eliminar el placentero “tener un subidón” que viene con la adicción — algo que la ECP eventualmente puede hacer.

“En este momento, tenemos varios estudios iniciales que prometen suministrar el rápido aumento de dopamina que hace que las personas tengan un subidón”, dice el Dr. Lee, neurocirujano de Mayo Clinic en Rochester, Minnesota.

En 2023, un récord de 112.000 personas murieron en los Estados Unidos después de una sobredosis de drogas, lo cual incluye drogas ilegales y opioides recetados. En 2019, a nivel mundial, alrededor de 600.000 muertes se atribuyeron al uso de drogas. A pesar de que varios tratamientos psicológicos y farmacéuticos están disponibles para la addición, alrededor del 75% al 98% de los pacientes presentan reincidencia.

“Lo que es único en la adicción es que se crea un patrón en el cerebro que se perpetúa a sí mismo”, explica el psiquiatra de Mayo Clinic, el Dr. Tyler Oesterle.”Básicamente, este comportamiento se refuerza, haciéndolo mucho más resistente a la intervención.”

El cerebro está listo para hacer del placer una prioridad. El sistema de recompensa del cerebro conecta dos pequeñas regiones: el área tegmental ventral de Tsai, que libera la dopamina química para sentirse bien, y el núcleo accumbens, que controla la memoria y el comportamiento. El primer es la razón por la que se siente un shock de placer después de morder una hamburguesa. Es por eso que su boca saliva cada vez que huele a alguien encendiendo una parrilla. Las drogas pueden abrumar este sistema al inundarlo de dopamina y reforzar los vínculos que sustentan la adicción.

¿Pero qué pasaría si pudiera cortocircuitar el sistema de recompensas? Si las drogas dejaran de provocar el estado de subidón, ¿sería más sencillo dejar de usarlas? Una investigación preliminar realizada en modelos animales y humanos, sugiere que es posible reducir el comportamiento de búsqueda de drogas estimulando eléctricamente las regiones cerebrales asociadas con la recompensa.

“Los resultados son prometedores, pero aún no sabemos cómo funciona”, dice el ingeniero biomédico de Mayo Clinic, Ph.D. Hojin Shin. “Lo que realmente necesitamos es una técnica que nos permita ver cómo funciona el cerebro y cómo cambia el cerebro en respuesta a la estimulación, para que podamos utilizar esa información para mejorar el tratamiento.”

Como parte del Laboratorio de Ingeniería Neuronal de Mayo Clinic, el Dr. Shin y su compañero, el Ph.D. Yoonbae Oh, han estado ocupados desarrollando nuevas técnicas para medir sustancias químicas cerebrales, como la dopamina y la serotonina, en tiempo real. Las versiones más recientes utilizan electrodos compuestos de fibras de carbono flexibles, más delgadas que un cabello humano, conectadas remotamente a un circuito electrónico que puede simultáneamente estimular neuronas y detectar neuroquímicos.

Los investigadores utilizaron sus innovaciones para obtener información importante sobre la ECP y los mecanismos de adicción. En un estudio, utilizaron la ECP para activar el área tegmental ventral de Tsai productora de dopamina en cerebros de roedores. Luego administraron una dosis de un estimulante altamente adictivo. El tratamiento experimental con la ECP redujo el flujo de dopamina al núcleo accumbens, el centro de recompensa del cerebro, casi a la mitad.

En otro estudio, el equipo probó el enfoque en un modelo de roedor con adicción a los opioides. Cuando les dieron a los modelos un poderoso opioide, notaron un aumento en los niveles de dopamina. Pero cuando trataron a los modelos con la ECP antes de administrar el medicamento, ese pico nunca ocurrió. El tratamiento experimental también pareció inhibir la depresión respiratoria, las dificultades respiratorias responsables de la mayoría de las muertes por sobredosis de opioides. 

Recientemente, el equipo ha recebido una subvención de los Institutos Nacionales de la Salud para obtener la aprobación de una Exención de Dispositivo de Investigación de la Food and Drug Administration (FDA), un paso necesario para futuros estudios preclínicos y ensayos clínicos de este tratamiento experimental.

“Ver la adicción como un problema biológico y abordarlo con tratamientos biológicos como ese, es un cambio de paradigma”, explica el Dr. Oesterle. “Sabemos que las intervenciones conductuales o farmacéuticas estándar no funcionan para todos. Vamos mucho más allá de los límites porque sabemos que necesitamos hacer algo diferente, realmente diferente, para ayudar a la gente a reconstruir su propia vida.”

Los investigadores vinculados a este proyecto tienen un interés financiero en la tecnología mencionada en ese artículo. Revise los estudios para obtener una lista completa de autores, divulgaciones y fondos.

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Información sobre Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic es una organización sin fines de lucro, dedicada a innovar la práctica clínica, la educación y la investigación, así como a ofrecer pericia, compasión y respuestas a todos los que necesitan recobrar la salud. Visite la Red Informativa de Mayo Clinic para leer más noticias sobre Mayo Clinic.

Newswise — A major international study led by a Canadian psychologist sheds light on a hidden phenomenon: how problematic use of pornography is affecting people in different parts of the world, across various genders and sexual orientations.

Published in the journal Addiction, the  research stands out because, among the 82,000 people in 42 countries studied, it looks at groups that were often overlooked in the past, including women and individuals who don’t fit traditional gender categories. 

In their findings, largely based on surveys and questionnaires, UdeM assistant professor of psychology Beáta Bőthe and her colleagues focus on what experts call ‘problematic pornography use’ or PPU,  where people can’t control their use of pornography.

This misuse starts to have serious negative impacts on their lives, including losing jobs or feeling significant distress. Importantly, the study clarifies that feeling guilty for consuming pornography doesn’t necessarily mean someone is actually a problematic user.

As many as 94% of adults

“A lot of people watch pornography,” said Bőthe, whose 79 co-authors include members of the International Sex Survey consortium in the U.S., China, Europe and other parts of the globe.

“In North America, Europe and Australia, 70 to 94 per cent of adults have used pornography at some point in their lives. Before, we knew that men can often become problematic pornography users, but there was little information about how women and people with diverse gender identities are affected, nor how this issue affects people based on their sexual orientation.”

Hers is one of the first studies on pornography to include a wide range of people and to consider different genders and who they are attracted to. Delving into the data, Bőthe and her co-researchers used special analytical tools designed to measure how serious these people’s problem with pornography might be.

They discovered that just over 3 per cent might have a real problem with pornography. Men seemed to have more issues compared to women, but the study didn’t find big differences based on whether people were straight, gay, or bisexual, or reported other sexual orientations. And comparatively few people who might have a problem with pornography ever look for help.

“Our research shows that the problematic pornography use may be more common than many might think and affects a wide range of people,” said Bőthe. “It highlights that while many are struggling, not many seek help. That’s important because it suggests that more work needs to be done to understand and support those who are affected by it.”

Many ways to consume 

Online, there are all kinds of sexually explicit content available, most of it for free. These include:

• Videos and movies. These are perhaps the most common forms of pornography, involving various types of sexual activities portrayed in video format. These can range from amateur recordings to professional productions.
• Images and photographs. These include still images, which can be either photographs or digitally created artwork, depicting nudity or sexual acts.
• Erotic stories and literature. These written materials describe sexual scenarios and fantasies and are found on websites and in online forums.
• Live cam shows. These involve live streaming of sexual acts or erotic performances by individuals or groups, often allowing for viewers to interact with the performers.
• Virtual reality (VR) and interactive content. Advanced technologies are now being used to create immersive and interactive pornographic experiences, often using VR headsets.
• Chat rooms and forums. These platforms facilitate sexually explicit conversations and exchanges, sometimes including the sharing of personal sexual content.
• Animated and hentai content. This includes animated pornography, often with fantasy or exaggerated scenarios, including a subgenre known as ‘hentai’ which is a form of Japanese anime and manga pornography. 

“We didn’t measure what kind of porn people watch, so we don’t know if the watched materials align with a person’s sexual orientation,” said Bőthe. “But we can say that there’s no difference in PPU across people with different sexual orientations, and that men report PPU more frequently than women or gender-diverse individuals.” 

In some cultures, though widely consumed, porn is still considered taboo, and this can have the effect that woman shy away from it more than men, she added. 

Young people, particularly those who have grown up with easy internet access, generally consume more online porn than older generations who did not have such ready access in their formative years. And while most people use porn for seek sexual gratification, others do so out of curiosity, for educational purposes, or as a means to explore their sexuality. 

Influenced by other factors 

People who identify as transgender or non-binary might have specific preferences that are different from cisgender individuals, the study notes. For these people, how they consume  porn can be influenced by factors like seeking representation or exploring gender and sexual identity.

“And even though sexual minority individuals may watch porn more frequently than their heterosexual peers – because it may be more challenging for them to find romantic or sexual partners or because they use porn to learn about their sexuality – they don’t report more problems with their porn use than their heterosexual peers, ” Bőthe said. 

Overall, she concluded, “it’s important to acknowledge that these patterns are influenced by a complex interplay of personal, societal, and cultural factors and can vary widely within groups. And the perception and impact of pornography consumption can vary greatly among individuals within these groups.”

Newswise — The Rutgers University Behavioral Health Care (UBHC) Center for Integrated Care (CIC) has received nearly $2.6 million in federal grants/funding to work with its partners throughout the state to train behavioral health clinicians, nurses and nurse practitioners, and physician assistants in integrated care and integrated substance use disorder treatment.

The grant, funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, will extend behavioral health training and treatment in partnership with community-based health centers both within Rutgers Health and throughout New Jersey.

This is the third such HRSA-funded grant for the center—in total $6.5 million.

During this five-year project – called the Expanded Rutgers University Integrated Substance Use Disorder Training Program – the center will widen programming to include training for licensed counselors, registered nurses and prelicensure professionals, in addition to practitioners already being trained in the original program: advanced practice nurses, psychologists, physician assistants and social workers.

This program adds to the workforce of medical and behavioral health professionals trained to provide effective integrated care and integrated substance use disorder services including for individuals and families affected by opioid use disorder.

This project is led by principal investigator Holly Lister, a psychologist and program coordinator for the center; co-investigator Stephanie Marcello, assistant vice president of academics, integration and innovation at UBHC; and Katie Hilton, a licensed professional counselor and training and consultation specialist at UBHC and in the center.

“Through this full-time program, we can train up to 20 more medical and behavioral health professionals to enter back into our health care system and deliver effective integrated care and integrated addiction treatment to people and families across the state,” Lister said.

The Expanded Rutgers University Integrated Substance Use Disorder Training Program is a collaboration with the Rutgers New Jersey Medical School (NJMS) and NJMS faculty Jared Walsh, associate program director of the NJMS internal medicine residency program, and Ana Natale, general internal medicine division director and assistant dean for primary care and community initiatives. All fellows will be clinically instructed by Walsh at the University Hospital Ambulatory Care Center in Newark.

The program continues the CIC’s collaboration with the Rutgers School of Social Work. Jamey Lister, associate professor, co-director and New Jersey Director of the Northeast and Caribbean Rural Opioid Technical Assistance Center, leads evaluation, quality improvement efforts and research on clinical outcomes at the clinics and within communities served.

The CIC serves as a hub for integrated care education, training, consultation and clinical service delivery in New Jersey. Along with two other ongoing HRSA grants under the CIC, the Rutgers program feeds the clinical workforce and improves our ability to manage the complex behavioral and physical health needs of community members that experience high rates of chronic medical diseases, substance use, opioid overdoses and drug-related deaths.

Newswise — A collaborative research endeavor by scientists in the Departments of Radiology, Neurology, and Psychology and Neuroscience at the UNC School of Medicine have demonstrated the deleterious effects of chronic cocaine use on the functional networks in the brain.

Their study titled “Network Connectivity Changes Following Long-Term Cocaine Use and Abstinence”, was highlighted by the editor of Journal of Neuroscience in “This Week in The Journal.” The findings show that continued cocaine use affects how crucial neural networks communicate with one another in the brain, including the default mode network (DMN), the salience network (SN), and the lateral cortical network (LCN).

“The disrupted communication between the DMN and SN can make it harder to focus, control impulses, or feel motivated without the drug,” said Li-Ming Hsu, PhD, assistant professor of radiology and lead author on the study. “Essentially, these changes can impact how well they respond to everyday situations, making recovery and resisting cravings more challenging.”

Hsu led this project during his postdoctoral tenure at the Center for Animal MRI in the Biomedical Research Imaging Center and the Department of Neurology. The work provides new insights into the brain processes that underlie cocaine addiction and creates opportunities for the development of therapeutic approaches and the identification of an imaging marker for cocaine use disorders.

The brain operates like an orchestra, where each instrumentalist has a special role crucial for creating a coherent piece of music. Specific parts of the brain need to work together to complete a task. The DMN is active during daydreams and reflections, the SN is crucial for attentiveness, and the CEN, much like a musical conductor, plays a role in our decision-making and problem-solving.

The research was motivated by observations from human functional brain imaging studies suggesting chronic cocaine use alters connectivity within and between the major brain networks. Researchers needed a longitudinal animal model to understand the relationship between brain connectivity and the development of cocaine dependence, as well as changes during abstinence.

Researchers employed a rat model to mimic human addiction patterns, allowing the models to self-dose by nose poke. Paired with advanced neuroimaging techniques, the behavioral approach enables a deeper understanding of the brain’s adaptation to prolonged drug use and highlights how addictive substances can alter the functioning of critical brain networks.

Hsu’s research team used functional MRI scans to explore the changes in brain network dynamics on models that self-administrated cocaine. Over a period of 10 days followed by abstinence, researchers observed significant alterations in network communication, particularly between the DMN and SN.

These changes were more pronounced with increased cocaine intake over the 10 days of self-administration, suggesting a potential target for reducing cocaine cravings and aiding those in recovery. The changes in these networks’ communication could also serve as useful imaging biomarkers for cocaine addiction.

The study also offered novel insights into the anterior insular cortex (AI) and retrosplenial cortex (RSC). The former is responsible for emotional and social processing; whereas, the latter controls episodic memory, navigation, and imagining future events. Researchers noted that there was a difference in coactivity between these two regions before and after cocaine intake. This circuit could be a potential target for modulating associated behavioral changes in cocaine use disorders.

“Prior studies have demonstrated functional connectivity changes with cocaine exposure; however, the detailed longitudinal analysis of specific brain network changes, especially between the anterior insular cortex (AI) and retrosplenial cortex (RSC), before and after cocaine self-administration, and following extended abstinence, provides new insights,” said Hsu.

BYLINE: Christine Grashorn

Newswise — The weight of the opioid crisis is heavy.

From 2006 to 2019, more than 100 metric tons of prescription opioid pain relievers — roughly the weight of a loaded Boeing 757-200 aircraft — were dispensed to individuals across Indiana. Widespread opioid use is leading to devastating socioeconomic and health challenges, but organizations and policymakers working to fix the problem have not had a clear picture of opioid manufacture and travel.

Now, a first-of-its-kind public database developed by researchers at the University of Notre Dame is filling in those details by enabling public access to more than 10 years of national controlled substance transaction information.

The database was created to store the Automation of Reports and Consolidated Orders System (ARCOS), a collection of more than 550 million detailed opioid transactions that were submitted to the Drug Enforcement Administration by manufacturers and distributors of controlled substances from 2006 to 2019.

“Understanding the root of the drug crisis is crucial for medical professionals, researchers and policymakers to mitigate its impact effectively,” said William Evans, the Keough-Hesburgh Professor of Economics and co-founder of the Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities (LEO). “This is critical as this crisis has been particularly devastating for certain groups such as those who have been left behind in the economy. With this data, we now have unbelievable detail about the origins of this crisis, and we hope that this information can be part of developing solutions.”

The data for ARCOS became available through Paul Farrell Jr., a 1994 Notre Dame alumnus and co-lead attorney in the National Prescription Opiate Litigation. Although Farrell and his team at Farrell & Fuller had made the secured data publicly available on their firm’s site, the data set was very difficult to work with given its size.

Wanting to make this data more accessible to researchers, policymakers and health professionals, Farrell and the case’s expert witness met with researchers from LEO and Notre Dame’s Lucy Family Institute for Data and Society. Together, they created a plan for transferring the data to the University and gained a deeper understanding of the data.

Researchers from across campus collaborated with Farrell to develop a website where the records could be stored for public use. Evans and Ethan Leiber, the Gilbert F. Schaefer Associate Professor and director of graduate studies in the Department of Economics, partnered with the Lucy Family Institute’s Applied Analytics and Emerging Technology Lab (AETL) to facilitate the design and development of the new platform, ARCOS.nd.edu.

The website offers customizable queries that trace the journey of individual prescription opioid purchases, from the state and county of manufacture to distribution within communities where they are dispensed.

Michael Kennel, lead software solutions architect with AETL, developed the user-friendly interface for ARCOS. He hopes that access to the data on ARCOS.nd.edu will provide insights into understanding the rise of opioid misuse in America.

“The opioid crisis has claimed millions of lives. To change that, researchers need an easier way to obtain and analyze the data behind the crisis,” Kennel said.

Nitesh Chawla, founding director of the Lucy Family Institute and the Frank M. Freimann Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, noted that the project’s goal to provide user-oriented access to substance abuse transaction data aligns with Notre Dame’s goal of pursuing research that provides discoveries to enhance human well-being. He described the opioid epidemic as “one of society’s wicked problems.”

“Addressing this challenge is central to the mission of the Lucy Family Institute and is aligned with the University’s strategic framework,” Chawla said. “The data itself is not going to save a life, but the results from our collective research using the data can provide impactful data innovations that promote the prosperity of humanity. We are grateful for this collaboration with LEO, as it truly is a story of domain-informed, data-driven research for societal impact.”

This effort also informs a larger data platform initiative that AETL is launching this year, which “aims to scale impact by reducing barriers to access data and leverage advanced machine-learning resources,” said Rick Johnson, managing director of AETL.

The ARCOS website will expand as more information is collected to include additional years. In anticipation of this, the AETL team is continuing to optimize the user experience by developing enhanced query tools and file export options. Kennel explained that “at AETL, the apps that we build may not necessarily have an immediate impact on someone’s life, but we’re enabling people to do things that will have that kind of lasting impact.”

To learn more about future AETL project collaborations, visit the Lucy Family Institute website.

Contact: Brandi Wampler, associate director of media relations, 574-631-2632, [email protected]

Contact: Tracy DeStazio, associate director of media relations, 574-631-9958, [email protected]