Reward Enhancement to Sexual Cues (RESCues)
Led by Dr. Tierney LorenzUniversity of Nebraska-Lincoln
Study Overview:
The RESCues project aims to identify potential tractable points of intervention to disrupt women’s substance cravings and escalating substance use trajectories, with particular focus on risk and resilience factors unique to bisexual women.
Specific Aims:
(Aim 1): Identify how stress, sexual desire and sexualized substance use interact to drive women’s substance cravings.
(Aim 2): Identify the factors most central to change in networks of women’s substance use, cravings, and mood symptoms.
Study Sample Population:
200 women (100 heterosexual, 100 bisexual)
Unique Study Procedures:
This project will use longitudinal (repeated measures) symptom network analysis that test how stress influences network stability (i.e., connections between women’s substance use and mood symptoms), and whether symptom network features predict escalating substance use trajectories.
Long-Term Goals:
Our long-term goal is to prevent substance use disorders in young women, particularly bisexual women, at a pivotal developmental timeframe that sets the stage for lifelong substance use patterns.
Dr. Tierney LorenzPROJECT Director
Dr. Tierney Lorenz is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology and the Center for Brain, Biology and Behavior at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln. They received their Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Texas at Austin, and completed their postdoctoral fellowship at the Kinsey Institute and Center for Integrative Study of Animal Behavior at Indiana University. Dr. Lorenz directs the Women's Integrative Sexual Health (WISH) lab, which examines the interactions between mental, physical and sexual health, with a particular focus on helping women and gender minority people with mental and/or physical health conditions access happy, healthy, pleasurable sexual lives.