Cynthia Conklin, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Psychiatry

 RESEARCH   Research in my laboratory focuses on investigating subjective, physiological, and behavioral reactivity to drug-related cues in adult smokers. Current studies include examining the roles of negative mood, personalized cues, classical conditioning, and operant responding in the perpetuation of smoking behavior and relapse. Specific goals of this work are to develop new methods for studying the impact of drug-related stimuli on smokers' cue reactivity and improving cue-exposure therapy through the application of animal laboratory extinction techniques to the development of human addiction treatments.  

NIH GRANTS (PI only)

R01DA027508          (NIDA)                    Conklin & Soreca (MPIs)        9/30/09-06/30/13
  The effects of exercise on acute nicotine withdrawal
  This project examines the effect of exercise on key features of nicotine withdrawal including negative affect, sleep disturbances, and reactivity to smoking cues.

R01DA023646          (NIDA)                    Conklin (PI)        4/01/08-03/30/13
  Self-report and behavioral reactivity to combined smoking cues
  The goal of this work is to examine smoking cues in a manner that better captures real world experiences by 
  assessing smokers' reactivity to both standard proximal and personalized distal cues, both independently and combined.

PAST SUPPORT (PI only)
   Pittsburgh Mind and Body Center             Conklin (PI)       10/31/02 - 10/31/03
   Photographic cues and smoking
   This proposal examines the feasibility of developing smoking-related picture cues that capture
   salient smoking and nonsmoking environments for the purpose of investigating the role environments
   play in smokers' subjective and autonomic cue reactivity.

   R21DA017582        (NIDA)                     Conklin (PI)       9/30/03-9/30/08 (NCE)
   Personalized cues as factors in smoking relapse
   This proposal examines the impact of personal smoking-related and neutral context pictures,
   as well as salient mood and people cues, on subjective and physiological reactivity in smokers.

  R21DA019269         (NIDA)                     Conklin (PI)      9/30/04-9/30/09 (NCE)
  Extinction in smokers: Renewal and spontaneous recovery
  This proposal involves the translation of techniques shown to improve extinction training in
  animal laboratories into novel cue-extinction methods for human smokers.

HONORS
*  APA Young Psychopharmacologist  Award
*  ISGIDAR - Young Investigator Travel Award    
*  James D. Linden Award - awarded to the clinical psychology graduate student who best exemplifies
     the scientist-practitioner model -Purdue University
*  Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society      
*  Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society       
*  Everitt C. Johnson merit award - University of Delaware

PUBLICATIONS

Conklin, C.A., Tiffany, S.T., & Vrana, S.R. (2000).  The impact of imagining completed versus interrupted smoking on cigarette craving. Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, 8, 68‑74.

Tiffany, S.T., & Conklin, C.A. (2000).  A cognitive processing model of alcohol craving and compulsive alcohol use.  Addiction, 95, 145-153. 

Carter, B.L., Tiffany, S.T., & Conklin, C.A.  (2000).  Associative and non‑associative fentanyl tolerance in the rat: Evaluation of cross‑tolerance with mu‑ and kappa‑specific opioids.  Psychopharmacology, 148, 384‑392.

Conklin, C.A., & Tiffany, S.T. (2001).  The impact of imagining personalized versus standardized smoking scenarios on cigarette craving and autonomic reactivity.  Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, 9, 399-408.

Conklin, C.A., & Tiffany, S.T. (2002).  Applying extinction research and theory to cue-exposure addiction treatments.  Addiction, 97,155-167

Perkins, K.A., Sayette, M, Conklin, C.A., & Caggiula, A. (2003).  Placebo effects of tobacco smoking and other nicotine intake. Nicotine and Tobacco Research, 5, 695-709.

Perkins, K.A., Jetton, C. Stolinski, A. Fonte, C., & Conklin, C.A. (2003).  The reliability of acute responses to nicotine in humans.  Nicotine and Tobacco Research, 5, 877-884.

Conklin, C. A., Clayton, R., Tiffany, S. T. & Shiffman, S. (2004). Introduction to concepts and measurement of the emergence of tobacco dependence: Tobacco Etiology Research Network, Addiction, 99(s1), 1-4.  

Tiffany, S. T., Conklin, C. A., Shiffman, S. & Clayton, R. R. (2004).  What can dependence theories tell us about assessing the emergence of tobacco dependence? Addiction, 99(s1), 78-86.

Perkins, K.A., Jacobs, L., Clark, L., Conklin, C.A., Sayette, M., Wilson, A. (2004).  Instructions about nicotine dose influence acute responses to a placebo nasal spray. Nicotine and Tobacco Research, 6, 1051-1060.

Perkins, K.A, Jacobs, L., Ciccocioppo, M., Conklin, C., Sayette, M., Caggiula, A. (2004). The influence of instructions and nicotine dose on the subjective and reinforcing effects of smoking. Experimental & Clinical Psychopharmacology, 12, 91-101.

Conklin, C.A., Perkins, K.A., Sheidow, A.J., Jones, B.L., Levine, M.D., & Marcus, M.D. (2005). The return to smoking: One year relapse trajectories among female smokers. Nicotine and Tobacco Research, 7, 533-540.

Conklin, C. A., & Perkins, K. A., (2005).  Subjective and reinforcing effects of smoking during negative mood induction.  Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 114, 153-164.

Perkins, K.A., Doyle, T., Ciccocioppo, M., Conklin, C., Sayette, M., & Caggiula, A. (2006).  Sex differences in the influence of nicotine dose instructions on the reinforcing and self-reported rewarding effects of smoking.  Psychopharmacology, 184, 600-607.

Conklin, C.A. (2006).  Environments as cues to smoke: Implications for extinction-based research and treatment.  Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, 14, 12-19.   

Perkins, K. A., Ciccocioppo, M., Conklin, C. A., Milanak, M., Grottenthaler, A., & Sayette, M. (2008). Mood influences on acute smoking responses are independent of nicotine intake and dose expectancy.  Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 117, 79-93. 

Conklin, C.A., Robin, N., Perkins, K. A., Salkeld, R. P. & McClernon, F. J.(2008).  Proximal versus distal cues to smoke: The effects of environments on smokers’ cue reactivity. Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, 16, 207-214.

Perkins, K. A., Lerman, C., Grottenthaler, A., Ciccocioppo, M., Milanak, M., Conklin, C.A., Bergen, A. W., Benowitz, N. (in press).  Dopamine and opioid gene variants are associated with increased smoking reward and reinforcement due to negative mood.  Behavioural Pharmacology.

Perkins, K.A., Grottenthaler, A., Ciccocioppo, M.M., Conklin, C.A., Sayette, M.A., Wilson, A.S. (in press) Mood, Nicotine, and dose expectancy effects on acute responses to nicotine spray, Psychopharmacology.

REVIEWS, INVITED PAPERS, BOOKS, CHAPTERS:

Conklin, C.A., & Tiffany, S.T. (2001).  Cue exposure treatment:  New ideas about an old therapy.  In R. H. Coombs (Ed.)  Addiction Recovery Tools: A Practitioner's Handbook.  Sage Publishers.

Tiffany, S.T., & Conklin, C.A., (2002).  Animal and human models of relapse.  Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, 10, 361-363.

Conklin, C.A., & Tiffany, S. T. (2002).  Cue Exposure: Time for change.  Addiction, 97, 1219-1223.

Conklin, C.A., & Perkins, K.A. (2004).  Nicotine Dependence and Smoking.  In N. Anderson (Ed.)  Encyclopedia of Health Behavior. Sage Publishers, 733-737.

Conklin, C.A., & Perkins, K.A. (in press).   Nicotine. In Encyclopedia of Drugs and Addiction.  Brown Reference Group, London.

Conklin, C.A., & Perkins, K.A. (in press).   Nicotine Replacements. In Encyclopedia of Drugs and Addiction.  Brown Reference Group, London.

Perkins, K.A., Conklin, C. A., Levine, M. D. (2007)  Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Smoking Cessation. Routledge Publishers, New York.

      APA Monitor article March 2006

conklinca@upmc.edu   

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