Co-occurring post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and alcohol use disorder (AUD) disproportionately affects Veterans and has significant negative impacts on the safety, wellbeing, and quality of life of Veterans, their romantic partners, and their families. However, treatments that address co-occurring PTSD-AUD and restore Veterans' psychosocial functioning are lacking. This project is designed to learn more to facilitate improving treatment approaches aimed at reducing symptoms of co-occurring PTSD-AUD and improving functioning among Veterans and their partners. The goal of this project is to learn from Veterans, family members, and treatment providers in order to inform an adaptation of a brief dyadic AUD intervention to be delivered alongside integrated PTSD-AUD treatment for Veteran couples.

In this pilot study we will assemble a portable TMS(transcranial magnetic stimulation) unit, in a van, and then test out delivering TMS in Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC)-affiliated facilities in South Carolina, all within 90 minutes of driving from Charleston, SC. This work will hopefully open up access to TMS for millions of patients with treatment-resistant depression who cannot be treated in the current model.
We will recruit up to 30 treatment-resistant depression patients who live near one of the MUSC-affiliated clinics. We will treat these patients, open-label, with FDA-approved accelerated TMS (6 sessions each day, over 2 hours, for 5 days, spread over one or two weeks). We will measure TMS effectiveness using standard depression rating scales.

In this pilot study we will assemble a portable TMS(transcranial magnetic stimulation) unit, in a van, and then test out delivering TMS in Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC)-affiliated facilities in South Carolina, all within 90 minutes of driving from Charleston, SC. This work will hopefully open up access to TMS for millions of patients with treatment-resistant depression who cannot be treated in the current model.
We will recruit up to 30 treatment-resistant depression patients who live near one of the MUSC-affiliated clinics. We will treat these patients, open-label, with FDA-approved accelerated TMS (6 sessions each day, over 2 hours, for 5 days, spread over one or two weeks). We will measure TMS effectiveness using standard depression rating scales.

This study involves testing how useful a technology-enhanced therapy is for pregnant people prescribed buprenorphine for the treatment of opioid use disorder, compared to medication monitoring. Participants are randomized to one of the conditions. Participants randomized to receive the therapy will attend four 60-minute therapy appointments during pregnancy with an additional 30-minute therapy session towards the end of pregnancy, and 6 additional monthly postpartum (after childbirth) sessions (0-6 months postpartum). As part of the therapy program, participants will receive access to a mobile application, which will be accessible for the duration of the study. Participants randomized to medication monitoring will be asked to log each time the medication is taken for a two month period. All participants will also be asked to complete questionnaires at enrollment and again at 3-month postpartum and 6-months postpartum, and will be contacted randomly throughout the study to perform a medication count. The total duration of the study is between 8-12 months depending on when enrollment occurs (early second trimester-mid third trimester). Compensation up to $310 is provided.

The purpose of this study is to explore whether a non-invasive form of ear stimulation called transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) can manage symptoms in patients with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Additionally, this study also uses magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to capture images of participants' brains and apply an image processing method called INSCAPE to track brain state changes during taVNS treatment in ASD. We will recruit up to 16 participants with ASD.

This study involves testing how useful a technology-enhanced intervention is for pregnant people prescribed buprenorphine for the management of opioid use disorder. The intervention being studied is a brief skill building protocol and a mobile application. Participation involves three 60-90-minute skill building appointments during pregnancy, and four 30-minute check-in visits at the end of pregnancy through 3 months postpartum. The mobile application will be accessible for at least the duration of the study. Participants will also be asked to complete questionnaires at enrollment and again at 1-month postpartum and 3-months postpartum, will send monthly photos of their prescription bottle/box, and will be contacted randomly throughout the study to perform a medication count. The total duration of the study is between 5-9 months depending on when you enroll. Compensation is provided.

The purpose of this study is to get feedback on an existing augmented reality (AR) software developed by researchers at Wayne State University (phase I) and then use the refined software, along with Prolonged Exposure (PE) therapy to treat Veterans and military personnel with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

AR involves wearing goggles through which you can see the real world, however virtual objects can be added to the environment (for example, like in the popular phone game Pokemon Go).

The technology was originally designed to help first responders, specifically police and firefighters, to overcome their avoidance of normal life situations caused by their trauma experience and PTSD. This includes a crowded party, a grocery store, a police roll call room and a fire station. This technology is now being expanded to include other common scenarios that military personnel and Veterans with PTSD may avoid.

This study will occur in 2 phases. Phase 1 will focus on getting feedback on the AR program from people who have completed PE therapy before to refine the technology. In phase 2, 40 Veterans and military personnel will be randomly selected to receive PTSD therapy + the refined AR technology or PE therapy alone.

This study is open to Veterans and active duty military personnel. All study activities will take place at the Ralph H. Johnson VA Health Care System and surrounding community-based outpatient clinics. This study is not open to civilians/non military personnel at this time.

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.

Anxiety related to movement has been found related to pain, disability and activity avoidance in persistent low back pain. Therefore, it significantly impact on the person's performance of daily activities. The current method of measuring anxiety related to movement in low back pain has been by using questions. However, the questions do not address anxiety related to specific movement and activities. Therefore, it is important to determine whether we can obtain the physiological change in anxiety (heart rate, skin response, and respiratory rate) by using some novel protocol where the participants will be imagining pictures of daily activities tasks. We will simultaneously measure their physiological anxiety-related responses which are temporary in nature and they usually perceive during their daily activities. Furthermore, we will provide initial idea on does the full questionnaires or items in the questionnaires are measuring anxiety related to movement or not, which can be considered in future large studies.