An Interdisciplinary Approach
Caitlin E. Martin, M.D., M.P.H., Director of OB/GYN Addiction Services in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, is leading research and education efforts as a physician-scientist to improve gender-informed treatment approaches for people with SUD. In doing so, her work spans across translational science, provider education, clinical care and research. For example, she is investigating how an individual’s sex and gender modifies treatment assessment tools and responses to different treatment regimens for opioid use disorder (OUD).
The Women & Addictions team is developing and evaluating modalities to improve the quality of integrated substance use disorder treatment with reproductive and sexual health (RSH) care. They also are studying how to effectively equip providers across specialties to understand addiction as a chronic disease and to provide compassionate, evidence-based, person-centered, trauma and gender-informed care for this patient population.
Read about the MOTIVATE Clinic, led by Dr. Martin and her team
Research
Dr. Martin is the lead investigator for the IVY (In Recovery) Lab, whose long-term goal is to improve the evidence base for gender-informed care and treatment for people with SUD across their lifespan. The overall aim of the IVY Lab’s research is to elucidate how biological factors, such as pregnancy and the postpartum state, and psychosocial contexts play together with sex and gender in the achievement of recovery among people with opioid and other SUDs.
The lab has three key research areas:
- The intersection of addiction and reproductive and sexual health across the lifespan
- Sex and gender differences in biological and psychosocial factors impacting substance use disorder treatment and recovery
- Recovery of women with opioid and other substance use disorders, including during pregnancy and through the postpartum period
The IVY Lab is always open to working with undergraduate, medical and graduate students interested in addiction recovery research. For more information about joining the IVY Lab, please contact:
Lillia Thumma
IVY Lab Research Coordinator
IVY@vcuhealth.org
Ongoing Projects
The purpose of this study is to test a new educational technology-based programs and brochure as supplement to prenatal education from the OB MOTIVATE providers. The program provides education about common challenges that pregnant and parenting women receiving medication for Opioid Use Disorder often face. Specifically, it addresses the transition from pregnancy to postpartum, possible neonatal withdrawal syndrome (NOWS), and interactions with child welfare.
A research study that aims to find out more about the role of sleep in opioid addiction treatment and recovery. Sleep is an important part of health, and among people receiving treatment for opioid use disorder, insomnia and sleep problems are common. The goal of this study is to help the study team better understand the interaction between sleep and opioid use disorder treatment and recovery. We want to learn about patients’ beliefs and attitudes about sleep and how it impacts their treatment and recovery, the things that improve or worsen patients’ sleep, how medications affect patients’ sleep, and use their opinions about interventions intended to improve sleep.
A research study that will adapt an anti-stigma training session, building off an existing SUD clinical curriculum for medical students, that will focus on SUD stigma. This includes the structural components that facilitate inequities among individuals with SUD, how SUD stigma can manifest in practice, and how individuals can become aware of their own SUD stigma. The adapted training will place more of an emphasis on the manifestation of SUD stigma in clinical practice, along with a SUD stigma “self-diagnosis” activity, intended to bring students’ awareness of how stigma might impact their interactions with patients.
Research Support
Principal Investigator: Caitlin Martin, M.D.
Funding Agency: Jeanann Dunlap Foundation
Study Details: This grant supports building infrastructure for clinical research within the integrated perinatal care and addiction clinic, OB MOTIVATE, at VCU with planned qualitative and quantitative research studies to investigate addiction treatment outcomes and their promoting, challenging factors within the OB MOTIVATE system.
Principal Investigator: Caitlin Martin, M.D.
Funding Agency: VCU School of Medicine, Value and Efficiency Teaching and Research (VETAR)
Study Details: This prospective cohort study will investigate how buprenorphine dosing intersects with pain, impulsivity and other biopsychosocial factors to support or hinder recovery of postpartum women with OUD.
Principal Investigator: Caitlin Martin, M.D.
Funding Agency: VCU School of Medicine
Study Details: This mixed methods study will evaluate the effectiveness of a novel curriculum for OBGYN residents embedded within a clinical rotation to improve clinical skills related to caring for women with substance use disorders.
Recent Publications
Keyser-Marcus L, Ramey T, Bjork J, Martin CE, Sabo R, Adams A, Moeller FG. Initial validation of a deep phenotyping model for addiction. Int. J. Environ. Res Public Health. 2024, 21(1), 14; doi:10.3390/ijerpj21010014.
Martin CE. Commentary on Cochran et al.: Meeting people where they are in addictions research. Addiction (2024).
Martin CE, Martinez-Telleria M, Hostetter K, Thumma L, Edwards C, Thakkar B. Expanding Medical Education to Include Substance Use Disorders during Pregnancy and Postpartum: Preliminary Effectiveness of a Pilot Curriculum for Medical Students. Journal of Addiction Medicine. doi:10.1097/ADM.0000000000001262
Eglovitch M, Parlier-Ahmad AB, Catherine Legge C, Chithranjan S, Kolli S, Violante S, Dzierzewski JM, Huhn AS, Wilkerson A, Martin CE. Patient reported preferences for sleep interventions among women receiving buprenorphine for opioid use disorder. Frontiers in Psychiatry. 2023 doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1233156.
Martin CE, Britton E, Shadowen H, Bachireddy C, Harrell A, Zhao X, Cunningham P. Disparities in opioid use disorder related hospital use among postpartum Virginia Medicaid members. Journal of Substance Use and Addiction Treatment. Jan 2023;145:208935 doi:10.1016/j.josat.2022.208935. PMID:36880911 PMCID:PMC9955349
Dr. Martin’s complete list of published work is available here.
Education
Dr. Martin’s team provides education to colleagues and trainees across medical and social specialties involved in the care of people with SUD focused on the following:
- Addiction within the chronic disease model
- How to eradicate stigma and discrimination of people with addiction
- The provision of compassionate, person-centered, recovery-oriented, gender and trauma-informed care to people with SUD.
Dr. Martin has created and begun testing the feasibility of novel curricula for first-year OB/GYN residents and third-year medical students aimed to improve clinical skills related to caring for women with SUD. As one of the core teaching faculty for the VCU Addiction Medicine Fellowship, she focuses on fellow education in perinatal addiction. Lastly, the team provides education year-round to colleagues within both VCU and VCUHS as well as local, regional and state venues on gender-informed approaches to clinical care of people with SUD.
Learn more about the department’s residency
Our Team
Principal Investigator
Caitlin E. Martin, M.D., M.P.H., FACOG
caitlin.martin@vcuhealth.org
Research Assistants
- Anna Beth Parlier-Ahmad
- Michelle Eglovitch
- Lillia Thumma
- Stefanie Marroquin
- Dr. Madison Marcus
- Medical Students
- Brenna Cook
- Rachelle Choi
- Cerelia Donald
- Rion Caldwell
- Gabrielle Simcoe
- Meghana Kapa
- Ellen Kim
- Arsheen Kudchilar
- Catherine Legge
- Sarah Martin
- Victoria Shi
- Sriya Kolli
- Sajanee Chithranjan
- Taylor Hallet
- Gus White
- David Zhu
- Hannah Shadowen