Sharon L Nichols

Research topics

Matched from this investigator's NIH project titles and abstracts.

• PTSD and Trauma
• Emotion and Affective Neuroscience
• Sleep and Circadian Rhythms

Active NIH awards

• SMARTer Healthy Choices: Optimizing a state-wide scalable intervention to improve alcohol and HIV self-management in adolescents and emerging adults (Project SUSTAIN)

  5P01AA029547-05

  NIAAA · FY 2025 · $107K

  Despite decades of research on behavioral interventions to improve management of HIV and alcohol and on the high rates of risk behaviors in emerging adults (ages 18-29), there is only one intervention that has been shown to improve viral burden and alcohol use in young people living with HIV (YPLWH) in full-scale trials with sufficient rigor to be published in JAMA journals. Healthy Choices, was adapted and developmentally tailored for emerging adults to address self-management of risk behaviors and HIV from Motivational Enhancement Therapy, a brief alcohol intervention in SAMHSA’s registry of evidenced-based programs. We will now conduct a hybrid Type 1 comparative effectiveness-implementation trial to develop an adaptive intervention (one where dose and delivery format can be tailored). The first randomization compares an existing brief mHealth MI- based self-management intervention (THRIVE) versus brief mHealth plus a single telehealth session of Healthy Choices. We move beyond a traditional clinical trial by utilizing a SMART design (Sequential Multiple Assignment Randomized Trial) as an efficient and rigorous way to explore additional questions to optimize interventions and maximize real-world implementation such as: 1) is there a need for an additional THRIVE check-up among YPLWH who report >80% adherence AND no NIAA-defined hazardous drinking after one month (responders); and 2) for YPLWH who report <=80% adherence AND hazardous drinking at 1-month follow-up (non-responders) which is more effective and economical, the remaining three sessions of Healthy Choices are delivered via telehealth versus mHealth. As another innovation, we include behavioral, biomarker and pragmatic outcomes. We plan to recruit a sample of 300 YPLWH across Florida who report any alcohol use and ≤80 percent adherence to antiretroviral treatment (from clinics, community organizations, and social media) and collect data at baseline, 3, 6, and 12 months. The goal of PROJECT SUSTAIN is to optimize Healthy Choices to advance an adaptive and sustainable intervention designed to improve self-management of alcohol and HIV in YPLWH while understanding the context for state-wide implementation and sustainment in an effectiveness-implementation Type 1 Hybrid SMART. The primary aim is to compare THRIVE, an mHealth intervention adapted to target self-management of alcohol and HIV, with THRIVE plus a single telehealth session of Healthy Choices. In a single session we can build motivation for alcohol and HIV management but not address the range of self-management skills. Thus, we also aim to understand the benefit of the remaining three Healthy Choices sessions for non-responders, to compare the effectiveness of delivery of these sessions by telehealth or mHealth, and to determine the benefit of mHealth boosters for responders. Finally, we prepare for state-wide implementation by studying barriers and facilitators from multiple stakeholders using an established implementation model (EPIS) that we adapted for the youth prevention and treatment cascades.

• SHARE Administrative Core

  5P01AA029547-04

  NIAAA · FY 2024 · $73K

  To address research gaps in alcohol and HIV comorbidity in young people living with HIV (YPLWH), particularly in Florida, Florida State University’s SHARE Program (Self-management of HIV and Alcohol Reaching Emerging adults) will synergize senior and emerging faculty across the state, national experts, youth stakeholders and community partners to address the priorities in RFA-20-009. The proposed Administrative Core (AC) will draw on a multidisciplinary team of experienced senior researchers, community representatives, and administrators to set, implement, and evaluate the Program Project’s scientific agenda and ensure efficient administrative and fiscal coordination of our scientific research and capacity-building initiatives. This AC will be the hub for program activities and coordination across the projects and resource cores and the over-arching liaison between the SHARE program and internal and external affiliated entities that collaborate on and monitor our work. Through the AC, SHARE leadership will maintain our focus on community-engaged innovations in translational behavioral science to improve HIV and alcohol outcomes in young people (ages 18-29) who are a vulnerable population for HIV and alcohol abuse with significant health disparities. We will do this in the state of Florida, which has the highest rate of new HIV infections in the US, and an epidemiology that encapsulates diverse populations across gender, race/ethnicity, and geography (rural/urban). AC mechanisms are designed to maximize synergy across the SHARE program and provide a foundation for future research. The AC will create an environment in which developmentally- and culturally-tailored research on comorbid HIV and alcohol use thrives and in which the SHARE program serves as a catalyst to scientific, practice, policy, and youth stakeholder communities at the forefront of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in a state-wide initiative within a state hardest hit by the HIV epidemic.

• SMARTer Healthy Choices: Optimizing a state-wide scalable intervention to improve alcohol and HIV self-management in adolescents and emerging adults (Project SUSTAIN)

  5P01AA029547-03

  NIAAA · FY 2023 · $73K

  SUSTAIN ABSTRACT Despite decades of research on behavioral interventions to improve management of HIV and alcohol and on the high rates of risk behaviors in emerging adults (ages 18-29), there is only one intervention that has been shown to improve viral burden and alcohol use in young people living with HIV (YPLWH) in full-scale trials with sufficient rigor to be published in JAMA journals. Healthy Choices, was adapted and developmentally tailored for emerging adults to address self-management of risk behaviors and HIV from Motivational Enhancement Therapy, a brief alcohol intervention in SAMHSA’s registry of evidenced-based programs. We will now conduct a hybrid Type 1 comparative effectiveness-implementation trial to develop an adaptive intervention (one where dose and delivery format can be tailored). The first randomization compares an existing brief mHealth MI- based self-management intervention (THRIVE) versus brief mHealth plus a single telehealth session of Health Choices. We move beyond a traditional clinical trial by utilizing a SMART design (Sequential Multiple Assignment Randomized Trial) as an efficient and rigorous way to explore additional questions to optimize interventions and maximize real-world implementation such as: 1) is there a need for an additional THRIVE check-up among YPLWH who report >80% adherence AND no NIAA-defined hazardous drinking after one month (responders); and 2) for YPLWH who report <=80% adherence AND hazardous drinking at 1-month follow-up (non-responders) which is more effective and economical, the remaining three sessions of Healthy Choices are delivered via telehealth versus mHealth. As another innovation, we include behavioral, biomarker and pragmatic outcomes. We plan to recruit a diverse sample of 300 YPLWH across Florida who report any alcohol use and ≤80 percent adherence to antiretroviral treatment (from clinics, community organizations, and social media) and collect data at baseline, 3, 6, and 12 months. The goal of PROJECT SUSTAIN is to optimize Healthy Choices to advance an adaptive and sustainable intervention designed to improve self-management of alcohol and HIV in YPLWH while understanding the context for state-wide implementation and sustainment in an effectiveness-implementation Type 1 Hybrid SMART. The primary aim is to compare THRIVE, an mHealth intervention adapted to target self-management of alcohol and HIV, with THRIVE plus a single telehealth session of Healthy Choices. In a single session we can build motivation for alcohol and HIV management but not address the range of self-management skills. Thus, we also aim to understand the benefit of the remaining three Healthy Choices sessions for non-responders, to compare the effectiveness of delivery of these sessions by telehealth or mHealth, and to determine the benefit of mHealth boosters for responders. Finally, we prepare for state-wide implementation by studying barriers and facilitators from multiple stakeholders using an established implementation model (EPIS) that we adapted for the youth prevention and treatment cascades and to include health economic factors.