Center of Excellence Personnel
Lisham Ashrafioun, Ph.D.
VA Appointment: Investigator
Academic Affiliation: Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry,
University of Rochester Medical Center
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Research InterestsMy research interests and experiences have spanned across distinct and overlapping areas of chronic pain, suicide prevention, and substance use, particularly opioid misuse. I am interested in assessing nonpharmacological pain management approaches and opioid risk mitigation strategies, particularly combining various forms of self-management strategies, on substance use, functioning, and vulnerability of suicide-related outcomes. I am also interested in characterizing suicide risk in individuals who experience chronic pain and in individuals misusing substances through the use of national survey and administrative medical record data. By characterizing risk in these populations, novel interventions and intervention targes can be identified to optimize substance use treatment, pain management and suicide prevention in patients experiencng pain and/or misusing substances. |
Current Funding
| DATES | SPONSOR | PROJECT | ROLE |
| 2021-2023 | National Institute on Drug Abuse | The impact of addressing loneliness on opioid use | PI |
| 2020-2023 | Health Resources & Services Administration | Addressing synthetic opioid-related overdose mortality in rural communities in the Delta and/or Appalachian region | Co-I |
| 2020-2022 | American Foundation for Suicide Prevention | Public messaging strategies to facilitate help seeking among those at high risk for both suicide and opioid overdose | Co-I |
Past Funding
| DATES | SPONSOR | PROJECT | ROLE |
| 2018-2020 | VA Office of Rural Health | A theraputic milieu for agriculture vocation training and mental health | Co-I |
| 2016-2019 | VA Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention; CoE | Developing a CBT-Pain intervention that includes a Veteran-centric, internet-developed insomnia intervention to decrease suicide attempts and unintentional overdose among pain patients | PI |
| 2018 | VA Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention | Whole Health Implementation: Effect on functional improvement, reduction of opioid use and factors associated with suicidal ideation | Co-I |
| 2015-2016 | VISN 2 Center of Excellence for Suicide Prevention Pilot Grant | Suicide attempts prior to and following referral to VHA pai clinics | PI |
