This is a study about identifying novel interventions to help those who have difficulty managing emotional experience. We are testing the combination of two successful interventions (noninvasive brain stimulation and cognitive therapy) aimed to help adults in one session calm down easier after they become emotionally distressed. We are interested in the effects of this intervention on ability to manage emotions and general distress in the lab and in the natural environment, both immediately after the intervention and a month later. We are no longer recruiting for this study.

Duke eIRB # Pro00066383

In this study we are planning to pilot our CBT and neuromodulation intervention in adults who are addicted to opiates and who have difficulties with emotions. We will examine our participant’s neural activity while undergoing an emotion regulation task to better understand whether there are unique impairments in the emotional regulation network in this population. Following we will administer a course of neuromodulation combined with cognitive restructuring and examine neural changes following the intervention. We are no longer recruiting for this study.

Duke IRIS protocol #: PRO00103230

Misophonia, the inability to tolerate certain repetitive aversive sounds that are common, is gaining recognition as a debilitating condition. It is not a well-understood condition and there are no known treatments.  Up to one in five people report moderate or higher misophonia symptoms; nevertheless, resources aimed at understanding and treating this problem are scarce. In order to align misophonia research with the priorities of large funding agencies such as the National Institute of Mental Health, we propose a novel study aimed at separating misophonic distress from other types of emotional distress. We plan to examine changes in brain activation during presentation and regulation of misophonic versus distressing sounds. Emergent neural networks that may be involved in misophonia will then be tested in the lab with the use of noninvasive neurostimulation, a novel tool that can enhance or inhibit activation in a targeted brain region. We plan to modulate activation in key areas of the misophonia brain circuitry with the aim to identify the optimal neural target for misophonia interventions. We are no longer recruiting for this study.

Duke IRIS protocol #: Pro00103683