Maxwell School News and Commentary

“Research Note: Does Despair in Young Adulthood Predict Mortality?” co-authored by Iliya Gutin, research assistant professor in the Center for Policy Research and the Center for Aging and Policy Studies, was published in Demography.

In an interview for the Drug Enforcement Administration’s “Prevention Profiles” podcast series, Dessa Bergen-Cico, professor of public health, discusses her more than 25 years of experience at Syracuse University addressing substance use prevention on campus and beyond.

The study, “States’ COVID-19 Restrictions were Associated with Increases in Drug Overdose Deaths in 2020,” was co-authored by Douglas Wolf, professor emeritus of public administration and international affairs, and published in the American Journal of Public Health.

“State COVID-19 Policies and Drug Overdose Mortality Among Working-Age Adults in the United States, 2020,” co-authored by Maxwell faculty members Douglas Wolf, Shannon Monnat, Emily Weimers and Jennifer Karas Montez, was published in the American Journal of Public Health.

“Shifting Cohort Patterns in the Use of Drugs with Elevated Overdose Risk in the United States,” co-authored by Professor of Sociology Shannon Monnat, was published in Social Problems.

"Geographically specific associations between county-level socioeconomic and household distress and mortality from drug poisoning, suicide, alcohol, and homicide among working-age adults in the United States," co-authored by Professor of Sociology Shannon Monnat, was published in SSM - Population Health.

Limiting supply of the drug alone will not solve the crisis, says Alexandra Punch, director of the Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion and Population Health. "What we're looking to solve is the mortality issue," she says. "I don't think we're going to solve the demand issue, because people are just going to find something different to use."

“Social media works a lot like any other type of addictive drug,” says Alexandra Punch, director of the Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion and Population Health. “When you utilize these services, it triggers dopamine responses and serotonin responses in the brain, so it also increases your craving for more of that same thing.”

Professor of Public Health Dessa Bergen-Cico, coordinator of the addiction studies program in Falk College, is the co-principal investigator of a research project that’s exploring how the combination of AI and mindfulness-based practices can help people in treatment for opioid use disorder.

Supported by a $1.2 million federal grant, they will evaluate the effectiveness of treatment and recovery services for those who’ve been incarcerated.