Research News Roundup: November 20, 2025

Journal: PLoS One, 2025, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0336029

Authors: Sugy Choi, Elizabeth Knopf, Megan A. O’Grady, Ivy Van Domselaar, Jessica Ortiz, Carla King, Charles J. Neighbors, & Thomas D’Aunno

Abstract:

Background: Pregnant and parenting women with substance use disorders (SUDs) face complex and overlapping challenges, including substance use, legal issues, housing instability, and trauma. Effective interorganizational collaboration is critical but often hindered by fragmented care and resource limitations. This study explores the key barriers and facilitators that impact collaborative efforts among healthcare providers, government agencies, and community organizations in addressing SUD among pregnant and parenting women.

Methods: This qualitative study was conducted in New York State between April 2022 and April 2023. The study focused on organizations that provide services to pregnant and parenting women with SUDs, including government agencies, SUD treatment centers, healthcare settings, and community-based care organizations. Semi-structured, one-on-one interviews were conducted with staff to explore how their organizations coordinate care. Thematic analysis was used to identify patterns related to interorganizational collaboration. Primary data were collected through interviews with 30 staff members across multiple stakeholder groups: child welfare services (n = 8), criminal legal agencies (n = 5), health agencies (n = 3), healthcare service settings (n = 4), SUD treatment programs (n = 6), and community-based organizations (n = 4). Interviews lasted approximately one hour and focused on organizational roles, referral processes, and coordination efforts in serving the target population.

Results: Collaborative care was primarily facilitated through referral networks, case management teams, and the presence of embedded healthcare professionals. However, these systems were frequently limited by fragmented communication, stigmatizing attitudes, and insufficient resources. Organizational facilitators included co-located healthcare staff within child welfare services and formalized partnerships across sectors. Key barriers included staffing shortages, burnout, and misalignment of organizational goals. At the individual level, collaboration often depended on informal relationships and staff-driven initiatives, though interdisciplinary knowledge gaps remained a significant challenge.

Conclusions: Improving service coordination for pregnant and parenting women with SUDs will require stronger organizational infrastructure, investment in cross-sector communication strategies, and deliberate efforts to address stigma. Future research should explore models that support sustained, formalized interagency partnerships to enhance care integration.

To read the full text of the article, please visit the publisher’s website.

Journal: Chest, 2025, doi: 10.1016/j.chest.2025.11.010

Authors: Chest Tobacco & Vaping Workgroup, Frank T. Leone, Mary Barrosse-Antle, Matthew Bars, Laura E. Crotty-Alexander, Carolyn Dresler, Jonathan Iaccarino, … John E. Studdard

Abstract:

Background: The 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act granted the FDA regulatory authority over tobacco products, extended to include electronic cigarettes (ECs) in 2016. Regulatory science informs potential market restrictions based on the population health standard. The CHEST Tobacco and Vaping Workgroup (WG) is charged with prioritizing tobacco-related advocacy. To identify critical gaps in the science guiding EC regulation, wean exploration of existing evidence to develop future research recommendations.

Methods: Fifteen WG members with relevant expertise in tobacco science, health policy and methodology prioritized twelve candidate research areas and selected the four highest-ranked questions for review: accessibility limitations, nicotine delivery limits, non-cardiac/non-malignant risks, and flavorant impact on airway biology. A comprehensive literature search was conducted and relevant studies were reviewed to develop recommendations through group consensus.

Key Findings and Recommendations: While age-appropriate restrictions reduce uptake, alternative access channels limit their impact, necessitating pragmatic trials of various restrictions and enforcement methods. Limiting nicotine delivery may lead to compensatory behaviors and increased toxicant exposure, requiring pharmacokinetic assessments that account for substantive variations in user behavior. Associations between EC use and respiratory symptoms, mood disorders, attentional disturbances and poor academic performance underscore the need for epidemiologic and mechanistic research into non-cardiac/non-malignant health risks. There is strong evidence that flavorant aerosols induce cytotoxicity in mammalian cells; however, their specific effects on humans remain insufficiently studied to inform product regulation.

Conclusion: Gaps in EC regulatory science hinder effective policy development. The panel recommends a focused research agenda addressing pragmatic trials of access restrictions, detailed evaluation of nicotine delivery limits, investigation of non-cardiac/non-malignant risks, and quantification of aerosol toxicity, with attention to diverse real-world use patterns to better inform regulation and protect public health.

To read the full text of the article, please visit the publisher’s website.

Journal: Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, 2025, doi: 10.1007/s40615-025-02714-0

Authors: Bertranna A. Muruthi, E. Stephanie Krauthamer-Ewing, Jessica L. Chou, Jaime Slaughter-Acey, David S. Bennett, & Amanda Stafford McRell

Abstract: Substance use disorder (SUD) is a significant and growing public health problem in the US. Maternal substance use destabilizes families, places children at higher risk for poor developmental outcomes, and contributes to more than $700 billion in national healthcare costs annually. Despite these realities, mothers with substance use difficulties remain an understudied and underserved population. For Black mothers in the US, the lack of research on risk factors, protective factors, and effective treatment elements intensifies this pervasive public health problem. For example, while a growing body of research demonstrates the negative effects of racism-related trauma on a wide range of health outcomes, no quantitative studies and only a handful of qualitative studies have examined the contributions of racism-related trauma to maternal substance use outcomes in Black women. Trauma history and current trauma-related symptoms are some of the most robust risk factors for maternal SUD. Like other forms of trauma, racism-related trauma likely impacts maternal SUD risk, amplifying and compounding the effects of other stressors, including parenting stress, another known maternal SUD risk factor. In response, this paper aims to highlight the relationships between prevalent risk factors for Black maternal substance use and discusses maternal mentalizing as a potential protective factor.

To read the full text of the article, please visit the publisher’s website.

Journal: Neuropsychopharmacology, 2025, doi: 10.1038/s41386-025-02249-2

Authors: Jeremy J. Watts, Xavier Navarri, & Patricia J. Conrod

Abstract:

There is an accumulation of evidence linking adolescent cannabis use with variations in brain structure and function, however it remains poorly understood whether cannabis-associated variations in brain structure represent pre-existing risk factors or consequences of cannabis use. We investigated whether cannabis use propensity and within-person variations of cannabis use were associated with cortical thickness during adolescence. Adolescents (n = 136, 74 female) completed three neuroimaging sessions and annual assessments from 12 until 17 years of age (with 90% follow-up). Cannabis use was disaggregated into between- (vulnerability) and within-person (time-varying) components using longitudinal multi-level modelling, controlling for age, sex and alcohol use. Across the whole sample, cortical thickness was lower in years when participants’ cannabis use exceeded their own average level of cannabis use (F1,25663.3 = 3.96, p = 0.047; mean: -0.0023 mm/once-per-week increase). This effect was stronger in males (F1,11447.7 = 9.83, p = 0.0017), such that each once-per-week increase in cannabis use was associated with a 0.005 mm reduction in cortical thickness, comparable to 17.9% of the annual rate of cortical thinning (-0.028 mm/year). The strongest within-person effects of cannabis were observed in regions with the greatest expression of CNR1, the gene that codes for the CB1 receptor (sample: rho = -0.33, pspin = .025; males: rho = -0.5, pspin = .005). At the between-person level, males (but not females) also exhibited a stable cortical thickness signature associated with propensity towards cannabis use and this signature was present before cannabis exposure. These results highlight the importance of longitudinal analyses using multi-level modelling to disaggregate potential risk factors from potential consequences of substance use.

To read the full text of the article, please visit the publisher’s website.