
Contact
Biomedical Research Center251 Bayview Blvd.
Suite 200
Baltimore, MD 21224
Phone: 667-312- 5077
Email: brenda.curtis@nih.gov
Education
Ph.D., Health Communication - Annenberg School for Communication - University of Pennsylvania - Philadelphia, PA
M.A. Health Communication - Annenberg School for Communication - University of Pennsylvania - Philadelphia, PA
M.S.P.H. Public Health, University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign, IL
B.S. Biology - University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign, IL
Research Interests
Dr. Curtis is a Tenure-Track Clinical Investigator since January 2019. She is Chief of the TTRU and NIH Distinguished Scholar. The Curtis Lab pairs traditional methodologies with computational psychiatry to study the digital phenotypes of people who use drugs. While much of the labs focus is on converting raw signals from digital data sources into useful clinical insights, the TTRU is very much committed to solving problems experienced by people in recovery and undergoing substance use treatment. Through clinical research, the Curtis lab intersects addiction treatment, computational psychiatry, and innovative technologies. Using natural-language processing, digital phenotyping, and deep learning, the lab focuses on enhancing precision assessment of substance use and behavioral predictors using intensive longitudinal data and integrating passive sensor data from smartphones and wearable devices. Among others, an overall goal is to develop personalized smartphone interventions for individuals living with SUD to enhance the recovery experience. Other areas of research focus on the intersect between addiction and Covid and on the impact of stigma on addiction.
Publications
Selected Publications
2023 |
AI-based analysis of social media language predicts addiction treatment dropout at 90 days Journal Article In: Neuropsychopharmacology, 2023, ISSN: 1740-634X. |
2022 |
COVID-Related Victimization, Racial Bias and Employment and Housing Disruption Increase Mental Health Risk Among US Asian, Black and Latinx Adults Journal Article In: Frontiers in Public Health, pp. 1625, 2022. |
Daily diary study of loneliness, alcohol, and drug use during the COVID-19 Pandemic Journal Article In: Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, vol. n/a, no. n/a, 2022. |
Head versus heart: social media reveals differential language of loneliness from depression Journal Article In: npj Mental Health Research, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 16, 2022, ISBN: 2731-4251. |
Nonsuicidal Self-Injury and Substance Use Disorders: A Shared Language of Addiction Proceedings Article In: Proceedings of the Eighth Workshop on Computational Linguistics and Clinical Psychology, pp. 177–183, Association for Computational Linguistics, Seattle, USA, 2022. |
Twitter Corpus of the #BlackLivesMatter Movement and Counter Protests: 2013 to 2021 Journal Article In: Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 1228-1235, 2022. |
Loneliness and Daily Alcohol Consumption During the COVID-19 Pandemic Journal Article In: Alcohol and Alcoholism, 2022. |
Women's Substance Use and Mental Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic Journal Article In: Women's Health Issues, 2022. |
Getting 'clean' from nonsuicidal self-injury: Experiences of addiction on the subreddit r/selfharm Journal Article In: Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 2022. |
Using Facebook language to predict and describe excessive alcohol use Journal Article In: Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, vol. 46, no. 5, pp. 836-847, 2022. |
Linguistic predictors from Facebook postings of substance use disorder treatment retention versus discontinuation Journal Article In: The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, pp. 1–13, 2022. |
2021 |
Bots and Misinformation Spread on Social Media: Implications for COVID-19 Journal Article In: J Med Internet Res, vol. 23, no. 5, pp. e26933, 2021, ISSN: 1438-8871. |
Beyond abstinence and relapse II: momentary relationships between stress, craving, and lapse within clusters of patients with similar patterns of drug use Journal Article In: Psychopharmacology, vol. 238, no. 6, pp. 1513–1529, 2021. |
Accuracy of Consumer-marketed smartphone-paired alcohol breath testing devices: A laboratory validation study Journal Article In: Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, vol. 45, no. 5, pp. 1091–1099, 2021. |
Alcohol-Associated Liver Disease Before and After COVID-19---An Overview and Call for Ongoing Investigation Journal Article In: Hepatology communications, vol. 5, no. 9, pp. 1616–1621, 2021. |
Child reward neurocircuitry and parental substance use history: Findings from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study Journal Article In: Addictive Behaviors, vol. 122, pp. 107034, 2021. |
Efficacy and comparative effectiveness of telephone and smartphone remote continuing care interventions for alcohol use disorder: a randomized controlled trial Journal Article In: Addiction, 2021. |
A daily diary study into the effects on mental health of COVID-19 pandemic-related behaviors Journal Article In: Psychological Medicine, pp. 1–9, 2021. |
2020 |
In: Harm Reduction Journal, vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 41, 2020, ISBN: 1477-7517. |
In: Arch Sex Behav, pp. 1-10, 2020, ISSN: 1573-2800 (Electronic); 0004-0002 (Linking). |
