This is a research study to find out if anxiety in patients with autism spectrum disorder are affected by a form of ear stimulation called transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation, or taVNS. Participants will learn how to self-administer ear stimulation treatments at home before starting the study. Over the course of a month, participants will self-administer ear stimulation treatments twice a day for a month. Each treatment will last up to 60 minutes (1 hour) and there will be a break of at least 30 minutes in between treatments. The study team will ask participants to complete a group of questionnaires at the beginning and end of the study. There will also be a smaller number of questionnaires completed electronically on a weekly basis. The questionnaires will ask questions about mental health symptoms that subjects may or may not be experiencing, including questions about mood, anxiety, and sleep.

Social anxiety, which broadly consists of fears related to being negatively evaluated and avoidance of social situations, is highly prevalent among Veterans. Social anxiety is associated with significant deficits in social and occupational functioning. This study aims to evaluate a brief text-based intervention for decreasing social anxiety related safety behaviors among Veterans attempting to re-integrate into the workforce. Findings from this study will examine the efficacy of the text based intervention with aims at improving functional outcomes and quality of life among Veterans. Additional data from participating Veterans will provide valuable feedback on the intervention and assist in future refinement.

Over 2400 people who have sickle cell disease and are between the ages of 15 and 45 have been enrolled into the National Registry (SCDIC-I) of patients with Sickle Cell Disease (SCD). A rich resource of natural history data, the SCDIC-I Registry has longitudinal data collected yearly since 2016 from patient surveys (e.g. self reported pain incidences, sleep, barriers to care, experiences during and after pregnancy), medical record abstraction (e.g. medications, transfusion history, co-morbidities) and laboratory results. The 150 patients (or 1200 among the 8 sites) will be selected from both MUSC adult and pediatric SCD clinics starting at 12 years of age; those not previously enrolled in the SCDIC National Registry will be offered the possibility to enroll in SCDIC-II.
We will look at the following:
1- Compare the effect of new SCD medications – crizanlizumab, voxelotor, and L-glutamine – on clinical outcomes in individuals with SCD.
2 - Identify genetic and genomic predictors of response to crizanlizumab, voxelotor, and L-glutamine
3 - Integrate study data into the CureSCi metadata catalog (MDC) to enhance future cross-study analyses.

Over 2400 people who have sickle cell disease and are between the ages of 15 and 45 have been enrolled into the National Registry (SCDIC-I) of patients with Sickle Cell Disease (SCD). A rich resource of natural history data, the SCDIC-I Registry has longitudinal data collected yearly since 2016 from patient surveys (e.g. self reported pain incidences, sleep, barriers to care, experiences during and after pregnancy), medical record abstraction (e.g. medications, transfusion history, comorbidities) and laboratory results. The SCDIC-II Registry will continue follow-up of this patient cohort and enroll new patients of all ages to enrich the data resource as a natural history study.

This is a research study to find out if mental health symptoms in patients admitted to the Institute of Psychiatry are affected by a form of ear stimulation called transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation, or taVNS. Participants will receive ear stimulation during their inpatient treatment at the Institute of Psychiatry. Participants will be randomly assigned to either receive ear stimulation for 1 day (up to 9 treatments over the course of a single day) or 3 days (up to 3 treatments per day), and will have a 50:50 chance of being in either group (like the flip of a coin). Each treatment will last up to 30 minutes and there will be a break of at least 30 minutes in between treatments. The study team will ask participants to complete a group of questionnaires at the beginning and end of the study. In addition, there are several questionnaires that will be completed daily while participants are receiving ear stimulation. Participants in the 1 day stimulation group will also receive 2 days of follow up questionnaires after the initial day of stimulation. The questionnaires will ask questions about mental health symptoms that subjects may or may not be experiencing, including questions about mood, anxiety, and sleep. The ear stimulation treatments will not interfere with the care subjects are receiving from the medical team. In order to qualify for this study, participants must be actively receiving inpatient care at the MUSC Institute of Psychiatry.

The purpose of this study is to identify domains in which stroke suvivors may have struggled since experiencing a stroke. These include things like emotional, family and work function. This study entails an interview and questionnaires that ask about functioning in these areas.

The longer-term goal of this work is to identify areas these areas so that we can develop a psychotherapy that could be helpful for individuals recovering from and living with the aftermath of stroke.

Mindfulness is a third wave psychotherapy that has been shown to improve focus and decrease stress and burnout in healthcare professionals. Unfortunately, no study to date has assessed the efficacy of combatting burnout and stress while also improving intraoperative focus in one of the specialties with the highest rate of burnout, neurosurgery. The lengthy time requirements of previous mindfulness interventions are not amenable to the variable schedule of a neurosurgeon. Therefore, the construction of a mindfulness intervention that is short, yet effective is essential to the proper integration of mindfulness into the workflow of neurosurgeons. The purpose of this study is to assess the efficacy of a brief mindfulness intervention on decreasing burnout and stress while improving focus in the operating room.

The purpose of this research is to test out a new way of treating generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) with low intensity focused ultrasound pulsation (LIFUP). If the subject agree to participate in the research study, the participation will last approximately 10.5 hours over seven (7) days. The visits are as follows: 1- consent and MRI, 2- and 3- focused ultrasound will be delivered outside of the MRI environment, 4- MRI plus focused ultrasound, 5- assessments 1 week post focused ultrasound, and 6- one month follow-up assessments. Research studies are voluntary and include only people who agree to take part.

The purpose of this study is to explore the use of a new treatment program to improve medication adherence for people with HIV and PTSD for patients at local HIV care clinics. Participants will be assigned to one of two groups. Participants in Group A will be asked to attend 12 clinic sessions (twice a week for 6 weeks, 90-minute sessions) via telehealth or in person at a HIV care clinic. Participants in Group B will receive a one session adherence intervention (60 minutes) and get the same standard treatment that someone with a trauma history and co-occurring HIV and PTSD symptoms would receive at a local HIV care clinic. The study is provided at no-cost, and participants may learn useful information and coping skills while being in the study. It is hoped the information that we get from this study will help researchers and clinicians better design treatment programs for people living with HIV and PTSD. Participants will receive study compensation for their time.

This is a study to find out if a device that temporarily alters brain activity (repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, rTMS) might be used to change how people with anxiety or related concerns cope with emotional situations. The study is recruiting people who recently started treatment for anxiety or a related concern. The study involves 3 visits to MUSC. At the first visit, participants do interviews and surveys asking about anxiety and related concerns, and they also do tasks where they see and react to emotional pictures while their brain activation is measured. At the next two visits, participants receive rTMS that uses a magnet placed on top of the head to alter brain activity temporarily (for about an hour). After rTMS, participants do two tasks where they see and react to emotional situations while wearing sensors on their hand, arms, face, and head.

Each visit in this study is expected to last between 2 – 3 hours. This study is not a treatment study, but it could help improve treatment in the future. Participants in this study are paid for their time.