Doctoral student awarded two grants

Doctoral student Valerie Hruschak has been awarded grants from the Staunton Farm Foundation and the Cigna Foundation for her research about chronic pain and opioid misuse. The first, from the Staunton Farm Foundation, is for $30,000 for the project: "Integrative Psychosocial Treatment: A Harms Reduction Approach to Chronic Pain and the Opioid Crisis" to support her dissertation research which is a pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT) of a behavioral intervention in patients with chronic non-cancer pain (CNCP) who are at risk for opioid misuse. The co-investigators on this project are Dr. Gerald Cochran Associate Dean for Research and Associate Professor, School of Social Work and Department of Psychiatry and Dr. Ajay Wasan Vice Chair for the UPMC Pain Medicine Program, and Professor of Anesthesiology and Psychiatry in the School of Medicine. The second, is from the Cigna Foundation for $3,000 for the project: "Enhancing our Understanding of the Risk Portfolio for Individuals with Chronic Pain and Opioid Misuse." The purpose of this grant is to examine risk factors in chronic pain patients that increase the likelihood for opioid misuse and to better understand the knowledge and attitudes regarding overdose education and naloxone distribution among patients accessing care at: (1) an outpatient pain clinic; and (2) an HIV clinic.

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Doctoral student Valerie Hruschak has been awarded grants from the Staunton Farm Foundation and the Cigna Foundation for her research about chronic pain and opioid misuse.