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Denise Hien, Ph.D., ABPP, is the Senior Vice Provost for Research, Chancellor’s Office, Rutgers-New Brunswick; Helen E. Chaney Endowed Chair in Alcohol Studies and Distinguished Professor in the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology (GSAPP) at Rutgers University. Recognized as a leader in the field of post-traumatic stress and addictions, her body of work has contributed to the evidence base on effective interventions for individuals with PTSD and substance use disorders. She and her group have conducted programmatic research through single- and multi-site clinical trials across the United States in community-based substance abuse treatment settings, with continuous funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse (NIAAA), and National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) (25 grants total: 8 R01, 2-R25, 1 multi-site) for over 30 years.  She currently leads an NIDA R25 training grant for translational addiction research for racial/ethnic minority BS/MD, MA and PhD candidates in the biomedical and social sciences, and an NIMH R01 hybrid effectiveness clinical trial for PTSD+SUD. She also recently completed an NIAAA R01 data science project, a meta-analysis with individual patient data examining effectiveness of treatment for PTSD and AODs. She is board-certified in clinical psychology and has served as a standing and ad hoc member on NIDA, NIAAA and NIMH Institutional Review Groups, and a health disparities advisory group to the Director of NIDA on Asian/Pacific Islander issues. Dr. Hien hopes to increase the center’s visibility in shaping the national conversation about leveraging data science to address equity in substance use treatment and policy research focusing on social determinants, including trauma, and their role in the development and maintenance of alcohol and other substance use disorders.

Dr. Hien received her B.A. in Psychology from Cornell University, and her M.S., M.Phil. and Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at Teachers College, Columbia University. She received her postdoctoral training in substance use research at the Division on Substance Use Disorders at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, where she has retained a longstanding appointment, now as Adjunct Senior Research Scientist. Over her career, she has served on the doctoral faculties of the Derner School of Psychology at Adelphi University, The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and The City College of New York. Within each of these institutions, she has held numerous leadership roles in academic and research administration.

For a complete list, see https://alcoholstudies.rutgers.edu/research/tap-lab-trauma-and-addiction-project-lab/

Project Harmony: A virtual clinical trial and meta-analysis with individual patient data for PTSD and Alcohol and Other Drug Use Disorders.

PTSD and AOD are frequently co-occurring disorders. Individually, they each pose significant public health problems, which are substantially exacerbated by their comorbidity. The PTSD/AOD VCT study is a National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism funded integrative data analysis project that will synthesize disparate data from 50 existing PTSD and alcohol and other drug disorders (AOD) treatment studies (resulting in a total of 4,544 study participants) to examine the relative efficacy of different AOD/PTSD treatments. Led by a team of experts in PTSD/AOD treatment and clinical trials from Rutgers Center of Alcohol and Substance Use Studies (Hien (MPI) & Ruglass), RTI International (Morgan-Lopez (MPI) & Saavedra), Medical University of South Carolina (Back, Brady & Killeen) & Columbia University (Campbell), the VCT study will use three novel and sophisticated data analytic approaches- meta-analysis of individual patient data, integrative data analysis, and propensity score weighting- to provide clear and definitive recommendations regarding which PTSD/AOD treatments are optimally effective. It will also indicate who is more or less likely to benefit from specific treatments, and whether the mechanisms of change in these treatments are similar or distinct. See Project Harmony website: https://projectharmonyvct.com for more details.

Expanding the COVID-Dynamic Study to Examine Patterns and Correlates of Substance Use During the Coronavirus Pandemic

As we face the immediate and longer-term impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, we see two broad domains that confer risk for the development of substance use problems/disorders, one involving medically related adverse impacts due to traumatic stress exposure and loss, and the second involving economic losses and social strains. In both of these domains, substance use, acting as a self-medication, will lead for some to problematic use and disorders. This study seeks to explore the longitudinal impacts of coronavirus related factors (stressors and trauma, losses, illnesses, economic conditions) on substance use patterns in a national sample, collaborating with the COVID Dynamic Study (CDS) at Caltech and Rutgers CAS’ Matt Lee, Yihong Zhao, and Lorraine Howard. Specifically, the COVID Dynamic Study, “Characterizing the dynamics of emotional and social attitudes during the covid-19 pandemic” is a big-data-driven longitudinal survey study of 1,800 individuals employing survey responses and experimental tasks. Its overarching translational goal is to help to improve messaging and compliance to public health regulations related to covid-19 through a better understanding of the socio-emotional factors that influence people’s decision-making. To quantify longitudinal effects that could inform public health policy, anonymized data is collected on subjects’ implicit and explicit socio-emotional biases, to characterize how these might relate to social, economic, moral and political judgments. See COVID Dynamic Study (CDS) at Caltech for more details.

Reading Faces: Social Cognition and PTSD

Our prior work (Social SCAN) found that individuals with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) perceive facial stimuli as more trustworthy in comparison to trauma-exposed individuals without PTSD (Fertuck et al., 2016). Reading Faces extends this work by investigating the behavioral and neural mechanisms underlying trustworthiness perception among three groups: individuals with high posttraumatic symptoms, low posttraumatic symptoms, and individuals with no history of trauma exposure. A second aim of the Reading Faces project is to test the efficacy of an attentional learning task: can disruptions in social cognition related to PTSD improve with attentional training?  While electroencephalography (EEG) is being recorded, participants in the laboratory rate faces and then complete an attentional training task. See TREATlab for more.

Social Emotions in co-occurring PTSD and alcohol misuse

PTSD and alcohol misuse or alcohol use disorder co-occur at significantly high rates. Current treatments targeting PTSD with co-occurring alcohol misuse have primarily focused on extinguishing the feeling of fear associated with trauma and reducing the activation of the reward pathway in alcohol misuse. But the efficacy of these treatments have proven to be limited; active and control conditions often show similar outcomes. Social emotions—specifically the feelings of shame and guilt — have been identified as emotions prevalent in both PTSD and alcohol misuse. Unlike fear and disgust, social emotions arise from interpersonal contexts and require self-referential thinking. This project investigates the behavioral and neural mechanism of shame and guilt in a sample of individuals with comorbid PTSD and hazardous drinking.  In a laboratory session, we look at whether shame and guilt increases alcohol craving and posttraumatic symptoms while using EEG to identify neural signatures for shame and guilt.

Mobile Mindfulness: Smartphone-based meditation training for enhanced cognition and emotion regulation

Research has shown that face-to-face mindfulness meditation has a positive impact on physical and psychological health. The Mobile Mindfulness project examines whether a smartphone-based mindfulness training (SBMT) can result in similar benefits. This project collects neural, behavioral, physiological, and subjective report data to help us understand how meditation helps us change how we feel, think, and respond. A second aim of this project is to pilot SBMT with individuals who report trauma-related distress and risky drinking. After screening for a good study fit, participants download a SBMT app onto their personal smartphone and use the app for 30 days. During the 30 days, participants complete one guided meditation daily. Before and after the 30-day period, participants attend an EEG laboratory session with attentional and cognitive exercises.

TRACC Program

TRACC (Translational Research Training in Addictions for Racial/Ethnic Minorities at the City College of New York and Columbia University Medical Center) aims to increase the number of scientists from underrepresented minority groups conducting translational addiction research. According to a 2011 article in Science, a low percentage of minority scientists achieve success in research award funding despite years of field-wide diversification efforts. Additionally, as the field of translational neuroscience continues to expand, the numbers of qualified minority scientists with interdisciplinary training lags behind. TRACC addresses these gaps by reaching earlier into the career development pipeline to identify and actively facilitate the professional success of the most talented minority students. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) has awarded $1.5 million to support TRACC’s mission. TRACC capitalizes on CCNY’s exceptional pool of diverse students, its renowned multidisciplinary faculty and a novel collaboration with substance use researchers at CUMC. TRACC will train 20 researchers over the next five years. Trainees will be selected from a pool of faculty-nominated CCNY graduate psychology students plus students in the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education’s BS/MD program. An initial cohort of four will begin training in the spring of 2014.

Recent and Active  Support (see CV for past support):

2018-2023 Principal Investigator, “Meta-Analysis with Individual Patient Data for PTSD and Alcohol Use Disorders” (MPI: Antonio Morgan-Lopez, Ph.D.), National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse (NIH) R01, Total Direct and Indirect Costs $1.8 Million.

2019-2024 Consultant/Scientific Advisory Board, “Missing Data Matters: Substance Use Disorder Clinical Trials” (PI: Dan Scharfstein, MD; Co-I’s: Edward Nunes, MD & Aimee Campbell, Ph.D.), National Institute on Drug Abuse. Total Direct and Indirect Costs ~$2.0 Million.

2022-2024 Principal Investigator, Addiction Continuing Education for Licensed Drug and Alcohol Counselors, State of New Jersey, Department of Health, Division of Mental Health and Addiction Services, $108,000.

2020-2025 Scientific Advisory Board Member, Diversity in Addiction Research Training at the Medical University of South Carolina, (DART) (PIs: Sudie Back, Ph.D. & Kathleen Brady, M.D., Ph.D.) at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), (National Institute on Drug Abuse, NIH R25 DA020537, $2.0 million

2020-2025 Principal Investigator, Translational Research Training in Addictions at City College and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons (TRACC) (MPI: Ruglass, CCNY; Co-I’s: Frances R. Levin, M.D., Aimee Campbell, Ph.D., Francine Conway, Ph.D., Robert Melara, Ph.D., Mauricio Trevisan, M.D.), National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIH) R25 Renewal, Total Direct and Indirect Costs $2.0 Million.

2021-2026 Scientific Advisory Board Member, Enhancing Diversity in Alcohol Research (EDAR) program (PI: Julianne Flanagan, Ph.D.), National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse, R25.

2021-2023 Scientific Advisory Board Member. Archiving and Harmonizing Data on Prevention and Treatment of Child Traumatic Stress (PI: Nancy Kassam-Adams, Ph.D.), National Institute of Mental Health, R03.

2021-2026 Scientific Partner, Center for Technology and Behavioral Health (CTBH) (PI: Lisa Marsch, Ph.D), National Institute on Drug Abuse, NIH-NIDA funded P30.

2021-2026 Mentor, LEAD Program, (PIs: Carmen Masson, Gideon St. Helen), R25, NIDA.

2022-2027 Mentor, FLORIDA-FIRST Health Sciences Brigade, National Institutes of Health, (PI: Frankie Wong, Ph.D.), U54 NIH.

2023-2028 Co-Investigator, Hybrid Effectiveness-Implementation Trial of Massed PTSD Treatment with Veterans in Substance Use Treatment (MPI: Norman, Ph.D., University of California San Diego; Co-I’s: Kehle-Forbes, University of Minnesota), Veterans Administration, Total Direct and Indirect Costs 2.4 Million.

2023-2029 Consultant/Scientific Advisor, “Project HOPE: Stepped Care for IPV PTSD” (PIs: Tami Sullivan, Dawn Johnson, Edelman), NIDA R33/R61 Total and Direct Costs 3.5 Million, National Institute on Drug Abuse R61/R33.

2024-2029 Principal Investigator, “Project COMET: Massed Prolonged Exposure for PTSD+SUD in Community Addition Treatment Programs” (MPI: Sonya Norman, Ph.D.), National Institute on Mental Health (NIH) R01, Total Direct and Indirect Costs $3.8 Million.

Selected Recent Publications (out of over 140: For a more complete list, see CV and https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/denise.hien.1/bibliography/public/

Research Interests: Effects of trauma exposures and addiction on the mind and body; intergenerational trauma and the impact of parental history on child functioning; the role of threat-related cognitive processing in the development and maintenance of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and associated interpersonal impairments; efficacy of treatment interventions for co-occurring PTSD and addiction; psychophysiological (EEG) predictors of social emotions related to trauma and PTSD; multicultural/diversity barriers in mentoring in social sciences; leveraging data science to promote equity in substance use treatment research.

Expertise: Board Certification in Clinical Psychology (ABPP), 25 years in private practice working with traumatic stress and addiction related disorders, evidence-based assessment and treatment of PTSD and SUD, clinical supervisor and mentor, consulting for legal cases on physical and sexual abuse in the women’s prison population by prison guards. Licensed psychologist in New York, New Jersey and PsyPACT.