Suena Massey, MD is a board-certified Psychiatrist with additional qualifications in Addiction Medicine who proposes the resubmission application for the Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award (K23) entitled, Psychological Mechanisms in Prenatal Smoking Behavior Change. Based on her clinical work with pregnant and non-pregnant substance abusers, Dr. Massey aims to build a foundation for an independent program of research on the psychological characterization of women who successfully quit smoking during pregnancy as a basis for identifying modifiable factors linked to cessation that can be targets for future interventions. To accomplish this long term goal, in this K23 study, she will combine analysis of extant data in a large phenotypically characterized community sample with state-of-the-art longitudinal repeated prospective measurement of prenatal smoking patterns with a new pilot study. This strategy maximizes impact of the K-award study while providing necessary didactic training and mentored experience in the day-to-day conduct of independent research with a prenatal cohort. Specifically, she will examine differences in empathy between women who quit smoking during pregnancy and women who do not drawing on a prenatal cohort oversampled for prenatal smoking (R01 DA023653; PI: L. Wakschlag). Guided by these results, she will conduct a pilot study to develop a multi-level battery for assessing empathy in pregnancy and provide preliminary evidence for its utility for use in future large scale studies of prenatal smoking cessation. Complementing these scientific aims, training goals are to: (1) develop sophisticated analytic skills in multi-level modeling, random-effects regression, and creation of latent variables; (2) acquire depth of expertise in multi-level measurement of empathy including direct assessments, and (3) acquire training in intervention development. Dr. Massey's outstanding mentorship team includes Lead Mentor, Katherine Wisner, MD, MS, and Co-Mentor Lauren Wakschlag, PhD, and Advisors Daniel Mroczek, PhD (Statistician, Personality Research), Michael Fleming, MD (Intervention Development), Jordan Grafman, PhD (Cognitive Neuroscience), and William Grobman, MD (Obstetrics). If prenatal smoking cessation is independently related to empathic capacity as hypothesized, interventions aimed at increasing empathy during pregnancy can significantly improve smoking cessation rates and reduce prenatal exposures to nicotine. Enhancing the unique motivation for behavior change during pregnancy holds the potential to interrupt a devastating intergenerational transmission of risk, while yielding immediate health benefits for mothers.

Public Health Relevance

Maternal smoking during pregnancy is a common preventable risk factor for poor birth and child outcomes in the United States and developed countries worldwide, and has been linked to disruptive behaviors in children exposed in utero. This study is aimed at understanding psychological mechanisms in prenatal smoking behavior change to identify targets for future interventions.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
Type
Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award (K23)
Project #
5K23DA037913-05
Application #
9734042
Study Section
Psychosocial Development, Risk and Prevention Study Section (PDRP)
Program Officer
Aklin, Will
Project Start
2015-07-01
Project End
2021-06-30
Budget Start
2019-07-01
Budget End
2021-06-30
Support Year
5
Fiscal Year
2019
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Northwestern University at Chicago
Department
Psychiatry
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
005436803
City
Chicago
State
IL
Country
United States
Zip Code
60611
Massey, Suena H; Mroczek, Daniel K; Reiss, David et al. (2018) Additive drug-specific and sex-specific risks associated with co-use of marijuana and tobacco during pregnancy: Evidence from 3 recent developmental cohorts (2003-2015). Neurotoxicol Teratol 68:97-106
Massey, Suena H; Newmark, Rebecca L; Wakschlag, Lauren S (2018) Explicating the role of empathic processes in substance use disorders: A conceptual framework and research agenda. Drug Alcohol Rev 37:316-332
Massey, Suena H; Wisner, Katherine L (2018) Understanding Pregnancy's Protective Effect on Drug Use Within a Developmental Framework. Am J Psychiatry 175:286-287
Massey, Suena H; Mroczek, Daniel K; Burns, James L et al. (2018) Positive parenting behaviors in women who spontaneously quit smoking during pregnancy: Clues to putative targets for preventive interventions. Neurotoxicol Teratol 67:18-24
Clark, Caron A C; Massey, Suena H; Wiebe, Sandra A et al. (2018) Does early maternal responsiveness buffer prenatal tobacco exposure effects on young children's behavioral disinhibition? Dev Psychopathol :1-14
Schuette, Stephanie A; Kominiarek, Michelle A; Wisner, Katherine L et al. (2018) Pre-pregnancy Body Mass Index and Third-Trimester Depressive Symptoms in a Healthy Privately Insured Sample. AJP Rep 8:e13-e17
Massey, Suena H; Hatcher, Amalia E; Clark, Caron A C et al. (2017) Does MAOA increase susceptibility to prenatal stress in young children? Neurotoxicol Teratol 61:82-91
Massey, Suena H; Decety, Jean; Wisner, Katherine L et al. (2017) Specification of Change Mechanisms in Pregnant Smokers for Malleable Target Identification: A Novel Approach to a Tenacious Public Health Problem. Front Public Health 5:239
Massey, Suena H; Stern, Daniel; Alden, Eva C et al. (2017) Cortical thickness of neural substrates supporting cognitive empathy in individuals with schizophrenia. Schizophr Res 179:119-124
Marceau, Kristine; De Araujo-Greecher, Marielena; Miller, Emily S et al. (2016) The Perinatal Risk Index: Early Risks Experienced by Domestic Adoptees in the United States. PLoS One 11:e0150486

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