Lauren V. Moran, MD, MPH

Dr. Moran’s current research centers around pharmacoepidemiology, with a specific focus on risk of psychosis with prescription stimulants. Her research uses real-world evidence from clinical care of patients, utilizing large data sources reflecting clinical practice, such as insurance claims data and electronic health records.

Moran’s early work focused on the neural basis of nicotine dependence in schizophrenia using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Using resting state functional connectivity, she identified that connectivity between the dorsal anterior cingulate (dACC) and insular cortex was decreased in association with increasing severity in non-psychiatrically ill smokers and smokers with schizophrenia. These finding suggest that the fundamental mechanisms of nicotine dependence are biologically similar.

In a related study, Moran found that functional connectivity between dACC and limbic regions, including the insula, was decreased in control smokers and smokers with schizophrenia, compared to healthy non-smokers. Her studies also found a decrease in functional connectivity between dACC and limbic regions in non-smokers with schizophrenia and first-degree non-psychotic relatives of schizophrenia patients. This work suggests that pathology associated with schizophrenia overlaps that of nicotine dependence and may, in part, explain the increased rates of nicotine use disorders in schizophrenia.

Moran has conducted further research on nicotine dependence and schizophrenia. Through this work, she has tried to understand the role of cue reactivity, cognitive function, and reward processing in the maintenance of nicotine addiction. She has published the novel finding that smokers with schizophrenia exhibited decreased neural reactivity in anterior cingulate and midline frontal regions to smoking cues compared to neutral cues.

More recently, Moran conducted a study in patients with psychotic disorders and reported the finding that use of prescription stimulants in childhood and adolescence prior to the onset of psychosis is associated with an earlier onset of psychosis after controlling for relevant confounders. Building on that work, Moran and her colleagues conducted the first cohort study demonstrating that prescription amphetamines are associated with an increased risk of psychosis in adolescents and young adults with ADHD.