Meghan McDevitt-Murphy

• PhD
• Professor (Associate) at University of Memphis

Background Emerging adults (EAs) who are not 4-year college students nor graduates are at elevated risk for lifetime alcohol use disorder, comorbid drug use, and mental health symptoms, compared to college graduates. There is a need for tailored brief alcohol intervention (BAI) approaches to reduce alcohol risk and to facilitate healthy development...

Background: Emerging adults (EAs) who are not 4-year college students nor graduates are at elevated risk for lifetime alcohol use disorder, comorbid drug use, and mental health symptoms, compared to college graduates. There is a need for tailored brief alcohol intervention (BAI) approaches to reduce alcohol risk and to facilitate healthy developmen...

Delay discounting-the extent to which individuals show a preference for smaller immediate rewards over larger delayed rewards-has been proposed as a transdiagnostic neurocognitive process across mental health conditions, but its examination in relation to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is comparatively recent. To assess the aggregated evidenc...

We assessed the interrater reliability, convergent validity, and discriminant validity of the Self-Injurious Thoughts and Behaviors Interview-Short Form (SITBI-SF) in a sample of 1,944 active duty service members and veterans seeking services for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and related conditions. The SITBI-SF demonstrated high interrater...

The distinction between alexithymia and coping in relation to posttraumatic stress has not been fully explored. The present study examined the extent to which alexithymia explained unique variance in posttraumatic stress, beyond the variance explained by coping, in a sample of trauma-exposed adults (N = 706; Mage = 19.41 years, SD = 1.5; 77.1% fema...

The association between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and harmful alcohol use has often been explained through the self-medication hypothesis via coping-related drinking motives. However, the magnitude of the indirect effect of PTSD on harmful alcohol use through coping motives is unclear. This study aggregated this indirect effect using a m...

Objective: Mobile health (mHealth) interventions show potential to broaden the reach of efficacious alcohol brief motivational interventions (BMIs). However, efficacy is mixed and may be limited by low participant attention and engagement. The present study examined the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of a live text-message de...

The theoretical framework of behavioral economics, a metatheory that integrates operant learning and economic theory, has only recently been applied to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). A behavioral economic theory of PTSD reflects an expansion of prior behavioral conceptualization of PTSD, which described PTSD in terms of respondent and operan...

This study reports findings from an open trial of a two-session intervention for veterans with symptoms of PTSD and hazardous drinking. Rooted behavioral economic theory, this intervention aimed to decrease alcohol use and increase alcohol-free activities through personalized and normative feedback. This trial assessed the feasibility and acceptabi...

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is often accompanied by elevated aggression. PTSD and combat exposure alone do not fully explain the reliable finding of heightened aggression among trauma-exposed veterans. Shame may be an important affective feature in this relationship. The present study examined the role of shame from a social hierarchy theo...

Diminished reward functioning (anhedonia) is an aspect of multiple psychiatric diagnoses and is a critical component of depression, yet it has rarely been examined in the context of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Deficits in reward function may be a transdiagnostic factor contributing to the high rate of comorbidity between PTSD and depressi...

Background Alcohol misuse poses significant public health concerns in the U.S. Military. An Alcohol Misconduct Prevention Program (AMPP), which includes a brief alcohol intervention (BAI) session, plus random breathalyzer program, has been shown to reduce alcohol-related incidents (ARIs) among Airmen undergoing training. Purpose The current study...

Alcohol use is common among military personnel. However, alcohol use and problems are challenging to measure because military personnel do not have similar levels of confidentiality as civilians and can face sanctions for reporting illegal behavior (e.g., underage drinking) or for drinking during prohibited times (e.g., during basic training). The...

Objectives: Heavy alcohol use is a particular problem in the US military, prompting the Institute of Medicine to identify it as a public health crisis. Developing prevention programs aimed at reducing problematic drinking during military service would be useful. Thus, the purpose of the current study, was to broadly disseminate and assess the effe...

Network analysis is becoming more widely used as a method of understanding the structure and potential causal and influential relationships between symptoms within and across psychiatric syndromes such as posttraumatic stress disorder. Because large samples are often needed to yield more stable findings in network analysis, researchers often strugg...

Research indicates that increased cumulative exposure (duration of administration and strength of dose) is associated with long-term opioid use. Because dentists represent some of the highest opioid prescribing medical professionals in the US, dental practices offer a critical site for intervention. The current study used a randomized clinical tria...

Behavioral economic theory can help researchers understand complex behavior by considering the availability and economic value associated with an individual's choices. This study explored how behavioral economic constructs relate to alcohol consumption and alcohol problems in a sample of trauma-exposed young adults. We further explored whether thes...

The loss of a loved one to homicide is associated with considerable distress, often in the form of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complicated grief (CG), and alcohol misuse. Yet alcohol-related problems and loss from a homicide are issues that disproportionally affect African Americans. The present study investigated alcohol use in a samp...

Adverse childhood experiences (ACE) are a public health concern and strong predictor of substance abuse, but no studies to date have explored the association between ACE and opioid relapse during medication-assisted treatment. Using an observational design, we examined this relationship using archived medical records of 87 patients who attended opi...

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and sexual functioning problems often co-occur after trauma. Researchers have linked certain factors (e.g., depression, relationship satisfaction) to PTSD and sexual functioning, but it is unclear how these variables interact. Adult undergraduate female trauma survivors (N=280) completed self-report measures via...

Survivors of homicide loss are vulnerable to negative mental health outcomes, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complicated grief (CG). Meaning making in the aftermath of traumatic loss is hypothesized to be an adaptive process associated with reduced symptomatology. Homicide survivors (N = 57) completed the PTSD Checklist, Invento...

This article reviews the use of ecological momentary assessment (EMA) and ecological momentary intervention (EMI) in clinical research applications. EMA refers to a method of data collection that attempts to capture respondents' activities, emotions, and thoughts in the moment, in their natural environment. It typically uses prompts administered th...

Objective: Although brief alcohol interventions (BAIs) that incorporate personalized feedback demonstrate efficacy for reducing the frequency and quantity of alcohol consumption in veteran samples, little research has explored the influence of BAIs in reducing symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The goal of this investigation was to...

Background Those currently serving in the military constitute a vulnerable population given their high-risk status for substance use, and population data suggest that veterans continue to engage in significant substance use long after their military service ends. Recent research suggests that the separation transition from active duty to civilian l...

This paper describes a universally implemented Brief Alcohol Intervention (BAI) administered across four major United States Air Force Technical Training sites for the past six years, and plans to study the added benefit of a booster BAI session through a randomized design. The proposed BAI booster study design is described, as well as strengths an...

Introduction: The most common psychological and cognitive sequelae associated with deployments to Afghanistan (Operation Enduring Freedom) and Iraq (Operation Iraqi Freedom) are mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). High rates of PTSD are often observed among Veterans with a history of mTBI, and persistent p...

We examined the use of the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) in a small sample of 47 U.S. military veterans of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Approximately half of the sample met criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) based on the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale. PAI profiles were compared between the PTSD and non-PTSD gro...

Many returning OIF/OEF/OND Veterans are seeking higher education in an effort to develop a meaningful career and financial stability. Evidence suggests that student service members/veterans (SSM/Vs) are experiencing less academic success than other students. The purpose of this review is to identify the unique challenges of SSM/Vs and evaluate curr...

Elevated alcohol reward value (RV) has been linked to higher levels of drinking and alcohol-related consequences, and there is evidence that specific drinking motives may mediate the relationship between demand and problematic alcohol use in college students, making these variables potentially important indicators of risk for high RV and alcohol pr...

Research indicates that posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is strongly associated with physical health difficulties, and that social support may be protective for both problems. Social support, however, is often broadly conceptualized. The present analysis explores how Veteran-specific social support (during military deployment and postdeployment...

Introduction: Combat veterans are at increased risk for PTSD and alcohol misuse, and expectancies and motives for drinking may help explain the link between these comorbid issues. This investigation explored the relationships between PTSD symptoms, PTSD-related alcohol expectancies, motives for drinking, and alcohol consumption/misuse. Method: 6...

Aftermath of battle experiences (ABE) may contribute to adverse mental and physical health outcomes. This study examined ABE and their effect on health functioning and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in 66 OEF/OIF/OND Veterans. Bivariate correlations were conducted to investigate the contribution of ABE to PTSD and health functioning, after co...

Although blacks are more likely than whites to experience posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after a natural disaster, the reasons for this disparity are unclear. This study explores whether race is associated with PTSD after adjusting for differences in preexisting vulnerabilities, exposure to stressors, and loss of social support due to Hurrica...

Objective: Combat veterans are at risk for several adverse outcomes such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, hazardous alcohol use, and most critically, suicidal behaviors. The high rate of suicide in veterans has been understood as a correlate of PTSD and depression, but it is possible that certain specific types of combat experi...

Posttraumatic stress (PTS) symptoms are associated with alcohol-related consequences, but there is a need to understand mediators that may help explain the reasons for this relationship. Individuals with PTS may experience elevated craving and alcohol reward value (demand), which may contribute to risk for alcohol-related consequences. We examined...

The present study attempted to determine whether behavioral economic indices of elevated alcohol reward value, measured before and immediately after a brief alcohol intervention, predict treatment response. Participants were 133 heavy drinking college students (49.6% female, 51.4% male; 64.3% Caucasian, 29.5% African American) who were randomized t...

Disenfranchised grief is experienced when a mourner’s grief response is socially invalidated, unacknowledged, or discouraged. When the circumstances of death or the emotional reactions of the griever violate social norms, empathic failures can occur within the bereaved individual’s support systems. This study used conventional content analysis, an...

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), alcohol use, and alcohol-related consequences have been linked to emotion dysregulation. Sex differences exist in both emotion regulation dimensions and alcohol use patterns. This investigation examined facets of emotion dysregulation as potential mediators of the relationship between PTSD symptoms and alcohol-...

Objective: This study examined patterns of drinking motives endorsed by heavy drinking veterans who either did or did not meet criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Method: Data were collected from 69 veterans of Operations Enduring Freedom or Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF) who had screened positive for hazardous drinking. The sample was 9...

Hazardous drinking among US Military combat veterans is an important public health issue. Because recent combat veterans are difficult to engage in specialty mental health and substance abuse care, there is a need for opportunistic interventions administered in settings visited by recent combat veterans such as primary care. This paper describes a...

We tested buffering and direct effect theories of social support to determine if combat exposure level moderated relationships between two aspects of social support (unit cohesion and postdeployment support) and two outcomes (PTSD and alcohol consumption) in 69 hazardous-drinking OEF/OIF veterans (65% Caucasian, 91% male). Combat exposure moderated...

Objective: The purpose of this study was to test the efficacy of 2 brief interventions for alcohol misuse in a sample of combat veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Method: Participants were 68 combat veterans (91.2% male; 64.7% White, 27.9% Black) with a mean age of 32.31 years (SD = 8.84) who screened positive for hazardous drinking i...

Combat traumas precipitate posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD); however, nontraumatic deployment and postdeployment factors may also contribute to PTSD severity. The Deployment Risk and Resilience Inventory (DRRI) was used to investigate pre-, peri-, and postdeployment factors associated with current PTSD severity in 150 recent combat veterans wit...

Objectives: Given that non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) disorder is being considered for the upcoming Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), it is important to consider how NSSI occurs with and without borderline personality disorder (BPD). Methods: Participants were 480 undergraduates who completed online questionnaires and...

Researchers examining personality typologies of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have consistently identified 3 groups: low pathology, internalizing, and externalizing. These groups have been found to predict functional severity and psychiatric comorbidity. In this study, we employed Latent Profile Analysis to compare this previously establishe...

Objectives: Alcohol use in the U.S. military is prevalent and associated with alcohol-related incidents (ARIs), an official U.S. Air Force sanction. Military ARIs incur substantial personal and financial costs. We evaluated the impact of the Alcohol Misconduct Prevention Program (AMPP) consisting of a group-based brief alcohol intervention (BAI) c...

This study used latent variable mixture modeling (LVMM) with a combined sample of undergraduates and internet users who endorsed non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI; N = 440) to identify profiles of non-suicidal self-injurers. LVMM results revealed four distinct subtypes (“Experimental NSSI,” “Mild NSSI,” “Multiple Functions/Anxious,” and “Automatic Fun...

College students exhibit high levels of heavy drinking that are often associated with negative consequences, including unsafe sexual activity, injury, and legal trouble. The fact that students continue to drink despite these outcomes suggests they experience salient positive consequences. A known risk factor of drinking is the personality trait sen...

Background: Behavioral economic demand curves measure individual differences in motivation for alcohol and have been associated with problematic patterns of alcohol use, but little is known about the variables that may contribute to elevated demand. Negative visceral states have been theorized to increase demand for alcohol and to contribute to ex...

Along with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is considered one of the "signature wounds" of combat operations in Iraq (Operation Iraqi Freedom [OIF]) and Afghanistan (Operation Enduring Freedom [OEF]), but the role of mTBI in the clinical profiles of Veterans with other comorbid forms of post-deployment psych...

To examine unique contributions of depression, alcohol consumption, and alcohol-related consequences on functional health outcomes in college students. Participants were heavy-drinking undergraduate students (N = 207) who completed self-report questionnaires. For men and women, depression predicted overall general health and mental health ratings....

This investigation of homicidally bereaved African Americans (n = 47) aimed to describe changes in levels of PTSD, depression and complicated grief (CG) and physical and mental health functioning over a six-month interval. Results showed a significant decrease in depressive and CG symptoms over time, but no significant changes in PTSD symptoms or h...

Posttraumatic stress disorder has been associated with adverse health outcomes. The extent to which the health effects of PTSD differ from other diagnoses has not been explored empirically. The current study investigated the Multidimensional Health Profile (including both Psychosocial and Health factors), across three diagnostic groups and one grou...

Although DSM-IV-TR diagnostic criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) include three primary symptom clusters, recent evidence from confirmatory factor analyses suggest that the latent structure of PTSD is better represented by four factors, which will likely be reflected in the upcoming DSM-5. Given this likely transition from three to fo...

Research generally supports the use of the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI; Morey 1991) to detect feigned PTSD, although this support has been somewhat mixed. There is also evidence that coaching individuals on the presence of PAI validity indicators may not affect their ability to avoid detection as feigners (Bagby et al. in Journal of Perso...

Mourners often rely on faith following loss, but not all find spirituality comforting. Some grievers engage in negative religious coping (NRC), signaled by behaviors and thoughts such as anger toward God or their faith community, feeling spiritually abandoned, or questioning God's power. Our longitudinal study of 46 African American homicide surviv...

This study investigated the replicability of a previously proposed personality typology of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD, and explored stability of cluster membership over a 6-month period. Participants with current PTSD (n = 156) were drawn from the Collaborative Longitudinal Personality Disorders Study (CLPS). The CLPS project tracked a lar...

We investigated the psychological impact of homicide bereavement in a sample of 54 African Americans (88.9% female) who had experienced the murder of a loved one within the past 5 years. Participants were recruited from a victims' services agency. The majority of participants (n = 34, 63%) were parents of the deceased. Using a cutoff of 50 on the P...

This manuscript describes early work to develop a cognitive-behavioral therapy protocol for returning OEF/OIF veterans with co-occurring posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and alcohol use disorders (AUD). Based on the unique characteristics of this population, and on the literature supporting cognitive behavioral coping skills and significant oth...

This investigation of homicidally bereaved African Americans (n = 47) aimed to describe changes in levels of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression and complicated grief (CG), and physical and mental health functioning over a 6-month interval. Results showed a significant decrease in depressive and CG symptoms over time but no significant...

Despite the development of a variety of efficacious alcohol intervention approaches for college students, few student drinkers seek help. The present study assessed students' history of help-seeking for alcohol problems, as well as their estimates of how likely they would be to use various help-seeking resources, should they wish to change their dr...

The authors conducted two randomized clinical trials with ethnically diverse samples of college student drinkers in order to determine (a) the relative efficacy of two popular computerized interventions versus a more comprehensive motivational interview approach (BASICS) and (b) the mechanisms of change associated with these interventions. In Study...

Psychological adaptation following homicide loss is challenged not only by the violent nature of the death itself but also by the bereaved's relationships with would-be supporters. Recruiting a sample of 54 African-American homicidally bereaved individuals, we examined perceived and actual support, the size of the support network, family versus non...

OBJECTIVES: This study investigated the relations between post-trauma psychopathology and substance abuse in a sample of trauma-exposed college students (n = 136) assigned to four groups based on primary diagnosis: posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, social phobia, or well-adjusted (participants who had low levels of distress). Groups were c...

Rape and sexual assault have been employed as weapons of war in recent conflicts. The effects on individuals, communities, and cultures can be devastating. Sexual assault is associated with high risk for posttraumatic stress disorder and other adverse outcomes. Some of the contextual factors (i.e., displacement, widespread fear and terror, multiple...

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and alcohol abuse both are negatively associated with health, and alcohol misuse may mediate the relationship between PTSD and functional health outcomes. The present study tested for such mediation using self-report measures of PTSD symptoms, hazardous alcohol use, and health functioning in 151 U.S. veterans (1...

This study investigated the co-occurrence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and substance use disorders (SUDs) in a sample ( N = 668) recruited for personality disorders and followed longitudinally as part of the Collaborative Longitudinal Personality Disorders Study. The study both examined rates of co-occurring disorders at baseline and tem...

This article highlights the research presented at the inaugural meeting of Alcoholism and Stress: A Framework for future Treatment Strategies. This meeting was held on May 6-8, 2008 in Volterra, Italy. It is an international meeting dedicated to developing preventive strategies and pharmacotherapeutic remedies for stress- and alcohol-related disord...

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is assumed to be an equivalent syndrome regardless of the type of traumatic event that precipitated it. However, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) and previous research suggest that the clinical presentation of PTSD varies by traum...

Research within the field of traumatic stress has documented a strong link between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and adverse physical health outcomes, although the mechanisms contributing to this relationship are unclear. The current study examined substance use behaviors as one such mediator in a mixed civilian trauma population. Participan...

Background: Psychosocial stress maintains cigarette use and precipitates relapse, but little is known about how natural disasters in particular affect smoking. Purpose: To determine the feasibility of recruiting victims soon after a natural disaster for a survey study, and to assess the types and determinants of changes in smoking behavior resul...

In this study psychometric properties of seven self-report measures of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were compared. The seven scales evaluated were the Davidson Trauma Scale (DTS), the PTSD Checklist (PCL), the Posttraumatic Stress Diagnostic Scale (PDS), the Civilian Mississippi Scale (CMS), the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R), the Pe...

This study investigated the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory—Revised (MMPI-2; Butcher, Dahlstrom, Graham, Tellegen, & Kaemmer, 1989) and the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI; Morey, 1991) with regard to each instrument's utility for discriminating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from depression and social phobia in a sample of...

This study investigated the utility of the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) for the assessment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Participants were 55 community-residing adult women who were administered a comprehensive battery that included the PAI and the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS). Participants were classified as either...

This study examined the impact of alcohol use and alcohol-related problems on several domains of life satisfaction (LS) in a sample of 353 college students. Alcohol use was associated with lower general satisfaction and anticipated future satisfaction among women. Female abstainers reported higher general and anticipated future satisfaction than di...

This study examined the Trauma Symptom Inventory (TSI; Briere, 1995) in a sample of 62 trauma-exposed community residents (80% Caucasian, 89% women), including 16 who had posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD and non-PTSD groups differed on seven TSI clinical scales and one validity scale, with effect sizes (r) ranging from 0.26 to 0.53. The l...

This study evaluated the relative efficacy of personalized drinking feedback (PDF) delivered with and without a motivational interview (MI) for college student drinkers. Heavy-drinking college students (N = 54; 691% female) were identified from a large screening sample and randomly assigned either to receive PDF during a single MI session or to rec...