Current Projects

Date of project:

2019 to ongoing

Project Description

Linked data is useful for researching outcomes following substance use treatment because it enables the combination of data from various sources to identify patterns and correlations that may not be evident from each of the separate data source individually. This approach also allows researchers to track patients over time and conduct observational studies to gain valuable insights into treatment outcomes.

This project uses data from a base cohort of individuals who attended a residential treatment service for moderate to severe substance use disorders was linked with administrative data from hospitals, emergency departments, mental health services, alcohol and other drug services, and the registry of deaths. Using this data, we have examined the predictors of residential treatment completion and investigated mortality following discharge from treatment. We are currently investigating health and substance use outcomes following discharge from treatment, specifically looking at service presentations that indicate suicide-related behaviours or a return to substance use.

We also examine the cost-effectiveness of varying alcohol and other drug (AOD) service types for different AOD presentations, including those with polydrug use and comorbid mental health conditions, and to determine client and staff preferences for increasing the uptake of routine outcome measures and feedback in AOD services using a discrete choice experiment.

Principal investigator and contact

Professor Leanne Hides; l.hides@uq.edu.au

NCYSUR and Lives Lived Well Project Members

Mr Calvert Tisdale

Dr Janni Leung

Ms Vivian Chiu

Gabrielle Campbell

External Project Members

Dr Dominique de Andrade

Student Opportunities 

There are opportunities for students with excellent writing, oral presentation, and data analysis skills interested in these projects. Please send an email with a cover letter, your Academic CV, and your academic transcript.

Date of project:

2020 to 2023

Project Description

Mental health conditions are common globally, causing an enormous disease and economic burden, resulting in a significant loss of healthy life, premature death, and loss of productivity. Low resource settings bear a disproportionate share of this disease burden attributed to mental health conditions. In addition to being a significant contributor to disease and economic burden, mental health conditions are often left untreated. Mental health services are scarce, ill-equipped, and underfunded. The availability and accessibility of mental health services are especially problematic in low-resource settings. Moreover, people with mental health conditions often do not use even these scarcely available services, due to low mental health literacy, or fearing the stigma and discrimination attached to accessing mental health services. Despite the recent advances in incorporating mental health into a global health agenda, the scarcity of mental health services remains an important public health issue.

Aims 

Using multiple research methods this thesis aimed to:

1. Estimate the treatment rates for depression and alcohol use disorder;
2. Estimate the remission rate from untreated depression;
3. Explore the perspectives of health professionals on mental health services in a low-resource setting;
4. Assess mental health service utilization (intention, treatment seeking, and barriers to care) in a low-resource setting, Northwest Ethiopia.

Principal investigator

Mr Tesfa Mekonen

Principal contact

Dr Janni Leung; j.leung1@uq.edu.au

NCYSUR and Lives Lived Well Project Members

Mr Tesfa Mekonen

Dr Janni Leung

Associate Prof. Gary Chan

Prof Leanne Hides

Prof Wayne Hall

Prof Jason Conor

Mr Habte Belete

Ms Lily Davidson

External collaborators

Tilahun Belete

Melak Menberu

Ms Sarah Ford

Student Opportunities 

There are opportunities for students with excellent writing, oral presentation, and data analysis skills interested in these projects. Please send an email with a cover letter, your Academic CV, and your academic transcript.

Date of project:

2021 to ongoing

Project Description and Aims 

Substance use and mental disorders are a major contributor to the global burden of disease. The impact is important also in low-income countries, including Sub-Sahara Africa, where epidemiological research and prevention programs are currently lacking.  

The common risk factors of mental health problems and substance use typically starts during the adolescence stage. Therefore, early monitoring and prevention of risk factors are required to reduce the burden of mental health and substance use.

Even though the burden of substance use is important in low-income countries, there is poor drug use monitoring, and cost-effective prevention strategies for substance use are underutilized among adolescents. This project aims to:

1. To synthesize a regional level of systematic review and meta-analysis of illicit and licit drug use in Sub-Saharan Africa
2. To adapt and develop effective risk prevention interventions such as school-based or community-based substance use preventive interventions to prevent addictive behaviours including substance use among adolescents and promote a healthy lifestyle and mental wellness.

This project bridges multiple disciplines including psychiatry, psychology, public health, statistics, and epidemiology to achieve our goal of creating high-quality empirical evidence to reduce the burden of mental and substance use disorders including preventing substance use among adolescents in low-income settings. 

Principal investigator and contact

Mr. Habte Belete; h.gobie@uq.net.au

NCYSUR and Lives Lived Well Project Members

Mr Tesfa Mekonen,

Ms Danielle Dawson,

Dr Janni Leung,

Associate Professor Gary Chan,

Dr Daniel Stjepanovic,

Professor Leanne Hides,

Emeritus Professor Wayne Hall,

Professor Jason Connor,

External Project members

Ms Dorothy Claire Espinosa

Professor Fentie Ambaw

Prof. Dr. Tanja Michael

Prof. (apl.) Dr. Monika Equit

Student Opportunities 

There are opportunities for students with excellent writing, oral presentation, and data analysis skills interested in these projects. Please send an email with a cover letter, your Academic CV, and your academic transcript.

Date of project:

2018 to ongoing

Project Description

The legality of cannabis has always been a controversial topic in society and even more so today as more countries are working towards legalising it. Cannabis has a lengthy and complicated history in Australia. Cannabis was used medicinally and available over the counter until the beginning of the 20th century. Since then, cannabis has traditionally been regarded as a prohibited substance by Australia’s regulatory regime. But that changed when the Australian Parliament passed the amendments to the Narcotic Drugs Act (1967) to allow access to medicinal cannabis in 2016, with rules differing between jurisdictions. In 2019, the Australian Capital Territory decriminalised cannabis for non-medicinal uses for adults.

Epidemiological evidence about the benefits and harms surrounding cannabis use remains debatable. Nonetheless, Australians are shifting rapidly to a more accepting attitude towards cannabis use in recent years. Understanding policy-related impact is useful in assessing future cannabis-related harms in the population.

As cannabis regulations evolve and the cannabis industry matures, further work in public attitudes, use intention and expectancies is needed to understand possible future public health effects arising from legalisation.

Aims

This project examines:

• Prevalence
• Age-period-cohort trends
• Policy impacts
• Perceived harmfulness
• Availability of cannabis
• Price and access
• Cannabis use intentions
• Frequent cannabis use
• Hospital and emergency presentations
• Accidental consumption by children
• Motor vehicle accidents
• Cannabis-related harms

Principal investigators

Emeritus Professor Wayne Hall

Ms Vivian Chiu

Dr Janni Leung

Principal contact

Dr Janni Leung; j.leung1@uq.edu.au

NCYSUR Project Members

Emeritus Professor Wayne Hall

Dr Janni Leung

Ms Vivian Chiu

Associate Professor Gary Chan

Dr Daniel Stjepanovic

Professor Leanne Hides

Professor Jason Connor

Ms Danielle Dawson

Ms Carmen Lim

Jack Chung

External Collaborators

Prof Louisa Degenhardt

David Hammond

Beatriz H. Carlini

Student Opportunities 

There are opportunities for students with excellent writing, oral presentation, and data analysis skills interested in these projects. Please send an email with a cover letter, your Academic CV, and your academic transcript.

Date of project:

2020 to ongoing

Project Description and Aims

Social media use continues to grow, supplanting traditional social interaction and traditional media. As such, social media platforms have become popular avenues for alcohol and other drugs content.

This project collects data on the level of exposure to substance use related content on social media and analyse what substance use related content are youth exposed to on social media.

Principal investigator and contact

Dr Janni Leung; j.leung1@uq.edu.au

NCYSUR and Lives Lived Well Project Members

Associate Professor Gary Chan

Dr Daniel Stjepanovic

Professor Leanne Hides

Emeritus Professor Wayne Hall

Professor Jason Connor

Tianze Sun

Brienna Rutherford

Carmen Lim

Calvert Tisdale

Jack Chung

Branden Cheng

Lily Davidson

Danielle Dawson

Caitlin McClure-Thomas

Student Opportunities 

There are opportunities for students with excellent writing, oral presentation, and data analysis skills interested in these projects. Please send an email with a cover letter, your Academic CV, and your academic transcript.

Funding

Department of Health, Australia

Date of project:

2017 to ongoing

Project Description and Aims 

Adolescent Aware is a longitudinal study, lead by Dr Catherine Quinn and a team of researchers, with over 2000 students from 14 schools in South East Queensland, Australia, which follows these students from Grade 7 and 8, through to the end of high school (Grade 12). Data were collected between 2017-2020, data analysis and dissemination of research findings are on-going.

A variety of outcomes are assessed in the study including alcohol and cigarette use, wellbeing, resilience, depression, social anxiety, bullying, victimization, technology use, sleeping habits and dieting. The study examines social, peer, and individual influences in affecting health-related outcomes in adolescents.

Principal investigator

Prof Leanne Hides  

Dr Cath Quinn

Principal contact

Rhiannon Ellem; r.ellem@uq.edu.au

NCYSUR and Lives Lived Well Project Members

Ms Rhiannon Ellem

Mr Calvert Tisdale

Associate Professor Gary Chan

Dr Janni Leung

Ms Jisu Choi

Ms Lily Davidson

Dr Molly Carlyle

Dr Melanie White

Prof David Kavanagh

Jack Chung

Student Opportunities 

There are opportunities for students with excellent writing, oral presentation, and data analysis skills interested in these projects. Please send an email with a cover letter, your Academic CV, and your academic transcript.

For Schools

We welcome the opportunity to collaborate with schools to promote the well-being of their students through research on mental health and addiction issues. Our team is available to visit schools, give talks, and conduct assessments that can help identify any potential issues and provide valuable insights to support school-wide interventions and initiatives. If you are interested in partnering with us, please don't hesitate to contact us to discuss the specifics of our research methodology and how we can tailor our approach to meet your school's unique needs.

Funding

Australian Commonwealth funding awarded to the National Centre for Youth Substance Use Research (NCYSUR) through the Australian Government Drug and Alcohol Program was the primary funder of this project. The project was supported by a 2017 early career research grant from the School of Psychology at The University of Queensland awarded to CQ. JL, GC, and LH are supported by The National Health and Medical Research Council grants. The funding sources had no role in the design of this study and did not have any role during its execution, analyses, interpretation of the data, or decision to submit results.

Date of project:

2020 to ongoing

Project Description and Aims

This multi-country project investigates quality of life, mental health, wellbeing, loneliness, worry and use of social media to stay connected. Data were collected using self-report cross-sectional surveys. It is an international collaboration between Norway, USA, UK, and Australia.

Australian-site lead and Contact

Dr Janni Leung; j.leung1@uq.edu.au

International project lead

Prof Amy Østertun Geirdal

NCYSUR Project Members

Ms Caitlin McClure-Thomas

Ms Vivian Chiu

International Project Members

Prof Amy Østertun Geirdal

Prof Tore Bonsaksen

Prof Hilde Thygesen

Prof Gary.Lamph

Dr Price she-her, Daicia

Prof Ruffolo, Mary

Mr Isaac Kabelenga

Dr Mariyana Schoultz

Student Opportunities 

There are opportunities for students with excellent writing, oral presentation, and data analysis skills interested in these projects. Please send an email with a cover letter, your Academic CV, and your academic transcript.

Date of project:

2022 to ongoing

Project Description and Aims

Substance use, addiction, and mental health problems are leading cause of disease burden globally and in Australia. Research on their risk factors, outcomes, and prevention strategies are public health priorities.

This project involves multiple methods, including systematic reviews and meta-analyses, longitudinal and data-linkage studies, population surveys, burden disease estimations, and predictive modelling designs.

The research program has high public health significance because the innovative use of cohort and data-linkage approach generates new knowledge about the burden of mental health problems and substance use on health outcomes. The modelling work provides a rich dataset to inform preventive strategies on disease burden in the future, in line with NHMRC’s research priority to preventive research.

Principal investigator and contact

Dr Janni Leung; j.leung1@uq.edu.au

NCYSUR and Lives Lived Well Project Members

Associate Professor Gary Chan

Dr Daniel Stjepanovic

Ms Vivian Chiu

Mr Tesfa Mekonen Yimer

Mr Calvert Tisdale

Ms Caitlin Mcclure-Thomas

Ms Danielle Dawson

Ms Carmen Lim

Ms Tianze Sun

Ms Brienna Rutherford

Mr Jack Chung

Ms Giang Vu

Dr Dominique De Andrade

Dr Gabrielle Campbell

Professor Leanne Hides

Emeritus Professor Wayne Hall

Professor Jason Connor

Devika Oberai

External collaborators

Dr Daniel Erku

Dr Jessica Kerr

Prof Craig Olsson

Dr Hanafi Mohamad Husin

Dr Thomas Santo Jr

Dr Emily Stockings

Prof Rebecca McKetin

Dr Sam Colledge-Frisby

Prof Shalini Arunogiri

Prof Amy Peacock

Dr Wing See Yuen

Dr Nicola Man

Prof Louisa Degenhardt

Student Opportunities 

There are opportunities for students with excellent writing, oral presentation, and data analysis skills interested in these projects. Please send an email with a cover letter, your Academic CV, and your academic transcript.

Funding

The University of Queensland, Australia. The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), Australia

Date of project:

2022 to ongoing

Project Description 

This project seeks to understand and respond to Indonesia's tobacco public health crisis. We plan to gather information on the perceptions, attitudes and health awareness of second-hand smoke and smoke-free zones in Indonesia. The findings from this research project will allow us to develop and disseminate a social media campaign to promote smoke-free zoning, by spreading awareness of the health impacts of second-hand smoke.

Aims 

This research project aims to recruit participants who have lived in Indonesia, to take part in an online questionnaire and focus groups run in Indonesia and Australia, to examine:

1. Perceptions of the harms of second-hand smoke.
2. Compliance with smoke-free zones.
3. Campaign suitability for the Indonesian cultural context.

Principal investigator and Contact

Dr Janni Leung; j.leung1@uq.edu.au

NCYSUR Project Members

Dr Janni Leung

Ms Carmen Lim

Ms Caitlin McClure-Thomas

External Project Collaborators

Dr Susy K. Sebayang

Dr Fitri Fausiah

Ms Ghea Farassania

Dr Sintha Dewi

Dr Sri Widati

Dr Rizanna Rosemary

Ms Fang-Yi-Su

Mr Shaun Foo

Student Opportunities 

We are currently accepting expressions of interest from students and collaborators interested in contributing to this project. If you are interested, please contact the principal investigator with your Academic CV including relevant skills and experience. Please include the academic transcript of your undergraduate studies.

Funding

This project is funded by the Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) under the Australia-Indonesia Institute Grant (AII202100095).

Date of project:

2021 to ongoing

Project Description and Aims

Video game addiction has significant impacts on physical and mental health, and vocational and social functioning. International Gaming Study (IGS2022) cross-sectional survey is part of this project. It laid the foundational work for the World Health Organisation (WHO), via Prof John Saunders, to develop a diagnostic schedule for gaming disorder for global adoption.

To date, the project has collected self-report data on video gaming related items, socio-demographic and individual characteristics factors, and physical symptoms from 1000 participants. We will collect new data in Australia and other parts of the world with our international collaborators to further inform WHO’s development of a diagnostic schedule for gaming disorder.

The collaboration bridges multiple disciplines including psychiatry, psychology, public health, and epidemiology to achieve our shared goal of creating high-quality empirical evidence to enhance the well-being of those who engage in videogaming.

Principal Investigators and Contact

Associate Professor Gary Chan; c.chan4@uq.edu.au (principal contact for detecting gaming addiction and psychometrics)

Dr Janni Leung; j.leung1@uq.edu.au (principal contact for studies on women who game and physical comorbidities)

Dr Daniel Stjepanovic; d.stjepanovic@uq.edu.au (principal contact for addiction, impairment, and resilience)

NCYSUR Project Members

Prof John B. Saunders

Ms Tianze Sun

Mr Calvert Tisdale

Mr Ben Johnson

Professor Leanne Hides

Professor Jason Connor

External Project Members

Dr Andrew Wood

Prof Daniel Johnson

Dr Kristiana Siste

Student Opportunities 

There are opportunities for students with excellent writing, oral presentation, and data analysis skills interested in these projects. Please send an email with a cover letter, your Academic CV, and your academic transcript.

Funding

The University of Queensland, Australia

Date of project:

2021 to ongoing

Project Description and Aims

The Japan Tobacco Use and Smoking Project (JTUS) is a collaboration between NCYSUR and the The International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project (the ITC Project).

The ITC Project is the first-ever international cohort study of tobacco use. Its overall objective is to measure the psychosocial and behavioural impact of key national level policies of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). The ITC Project is a collaborative effort with international health organizations and policymakers in 31 countries so far, inhabited by >50% of the world's population, >60% of the world's smokers, and >70% of the world's tobacco users.

JTUS aims to have a more focused look at Japan, examining tobacco-related topics on:

• Perceptions of smoking cessation aids
• Health conditions and concerns about the health effects
• Longitudinal predictors of quitting smoking
• Social norms around smoking and heated tobacco product use
• Exposure to tobacco advertising and promotions
• Knowledge of health effects related to smoking

Principal Investigator and Contact

Dr Janni Leung; j.leung1@uq.edu.au

NCYSUR Project Members

Ara Cho

Giang Vu

Gary Chung Kai Chan

Tianze Sun

International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project (ITC) collaborators

Shannon Gravely

Anne C. K. Quah

Steve Xu

Geoffrey Fong

Kota Katanoda

Takahiro Tabuchi

Kayo Togawa

Student Opportunities 

There are opportunities for students with excellent writing, oral presentation, and data analysis skills interested in these projects. Please send an email with a cover letter, your Academic CV, and your academic transcript.

Date of project:

2020 to ongoing

Project Description

Medicinal cannabis use has increased in many jurisdictions following the liberalisation of cannabis policy in Canada, parts of the United States, Uruguay, Thailand and Australia. Following these changes, medicinal cannabis use has steadily increased since 2016 when medicinal cannabis policies were relaxed in Australia. Current research indicates that our knowledge of the regulated and unregulated use of medicinal cannabis in Australia remains impoverished.  

To better understand this topic, we will be utilising systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and experimental, quantitative, and qualitative methodologies to understand the epidemiology of the use of medicinal cannabis. There is a lack of understanding about which health conditions and symptoms are most often associated with medicinal cannabis usage and a dearth of information regarding the preparation or dose size of medicinal cannabis used in Australia. Furthermore, little recent literature to date has examined the risk of cannabis use disorder in people who use medicinal cannabis or explored the risk of developing a tolerance to medicinal cannabis products.

Aims

The aim of this project is to understand the complex relationships and patterns which exist within the medicinal cannabis population and to identify the underlying public health implications of medicinal cannabis use across different populations.

Principal investigator and contact

Danielle Dawson; danielle.dawson@uq.net.au

NCYSUR Project Members

Dr Janni Leung

Dr Daniel Stjepanovic

Professor Leanne Hides

Emeritus Professor Wayne Hall

Professor Jason Connor

Mr Jack Chung

Associate Prof Gary Chung Kai Chan

External Project Members

Associate Professor Valentina Lorenzetti

Prof David Hammond

Student Opportunities   

For motivated and organised students with a specific interest in researching cannabis, there are opportunities for PhD, Honours and research projects. Please send an email with a cover letter, your Academic CV, and your academic transcript.   

Date of project:

2023 to ongoing

Project Description

Prevention of youth substance use and problem use, including vaping

Novel psychological models of problem drinking

Substance use policy for young people

Aims 

These research projects aim to address the spectrum of youth substance disorders and the policies relating to these substance use disorders.

Principal investigator and contact

Emeritus Professor Wayne Hall; w.hall@uq.edu.au

NCYSUR and Lives Lived Well Project Members

Professor Jason Connor

Professor Leanne Hides 

Associate Professor Gary Chan

Dr Janni Leung

Dr Daniel Stjepanovic

Dr Gabrielle Campbell

Dr Nina Pocuca

Dr Juliane Pariz Teixeira

Student Opportunities 

PhD students interested in these projects, please contact the principal investigator with your Academic CV including relevant skills and experience. Please include the academic transcript of your undergraduate studies.

Funding

Projects are funded via several sources, including The Department of Health, National Health and Medical Research Council, Australian Research Council, and hospital-based funding.

Date of project:

2021 to ongoing

Project Description

Our team at the National Centre for Youth Substance Use Research (NCYSUR) has developed a vaping outreach program to combat the rising trend of e-cigarette usage among Australian youth.

This 45-minute interactive program focuses on educating school students on the principles of harm minimisation, encouraging non-use, and promoting a cultural shift in attitudes towards vaping.

The materials and approaches are adapted from the Stanford Tobacco Prevention Toolkit. This school-based e-cigarette education program is developed by experts in the field and has been shown to reduce intentions to try e-cigarettes and increase students' perception of the harmfulness and addictiveness of e-cigarettes.

Aims 

Our program aims to:

1. Increase students' awareness and understanding of the harmfulness and addictiveness of e-cigarettes.
2. Reduce intentions to try and use e-cigarettes among young people.
3. Promote a culture of informed decision-making by providing evidence-based education on vaping and its impact on health and well-being.
4. Foster resilience and empower youth to resist peer and societal pressures to experiment with vaping.
5. Continuously improve the program based on evidence and feedback.

Principal investigators and contact

Ms Tianze Sun; tianze.sun@uq.edu.au

Associate Professor Gary Chan; c.chan4@uq.edu.au  

NCYSUR Project Members

Dr Janni Leung

Professor Jason Connor

Dr Daniel Stjepanovic

Emeritus Professor Wayne Hall

Brienna Rutherford

Carmen Lim

Daniel Stjepanovic

Contact us for School Presentations:

We are committed to combating the rise in vaping among young Australians and have been delivering interactive presentations to schools in Queensland. Our goal is to educate youth about the potential harms of vaping and encourage responsible decision-making. If you are interested in having our team present at your school or would like to discuss collaboration opportunities, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us.