Substance abuse has long been studied by psychologists, but new advances in research have enabled scientists to reevaluate old treatment methods. On Friday, Binghamton University alumna Clara Bradizza came as part of the Harpur College Dean’s Speaker Series in psychological sciences to share her findings.

Bradizza graduated with a doctoral degree in clinical psychology from Binghamton University in 1992. She now works as a senior research scientist at the Research Institute on Addictions at the University at Buffalo, and has conducted studies on substance use and abuse, addiction, treatment and most recently alcohol use disorders.

In her presentation, “Affect (Emotion) Regulation Training for Substance Use Disorders: Everything Old is New Again,” she explains that substance abuse has been a problem for centuries, and that the treatments she utilizes now have been around for a long time as well. The difference now, however, is that science can prove the effectiveness of these treatments. Bradizza explained that people drinking to communally avoid negative emotions is also certainly not a new phenomenon, either.

“The research that I will discuss today is based on ideas that have been around for decades, if not centuries,” Bradizza said. “The avoidance of unpleasant emotion is a cause of suffering, which creates problems, and that the direct or sustained experiencing of unpleasant emotions and thoughts is a way out of suffering — a curative method.”

Bradizza explained that the feeling of craving substances is negative. People tell themselves that they will stay away from something, such as cake, if they’re on a diet, but then the feeling of craving makes us want it, yet we still try to stay away from it which is unpleasant. She followed by saying there is a strong correlation between this and the relationship between negative emotions and substance abuse.

“Negative effect is a frequent precipitant of both heavy drinking and relapse episodes,” Bradizza said. “Substance abuse is at least in part maintained by negative reinforcements or the relief of negative affect. Craving can be viewed as a negative effect in this sense. Craving motivates behavior and can be a feeling that can be very unpleasant.”

Once the emotions are felt, Bradizza explained, there are two ways people tend to handle them: adaptively and maladaptively. Adaptive strategies include coping with and solving the problem whereas maladaptive strategies are ineffective solutions and psychologically damaging ways of dealing with stress.

“The course of events or mental steps that would follow an adaptive strategy in dealing with negative effects include reappraisal and acceptance of the emotion or event, and eventually trying to make changes to make things better — problem solving,” she said. “Maladaptive strategy on the other hand is related to anxiety, suppression and rumination.”

Stephen Lisman, a BU psychology professor, introduced Bradizza and gave insight into both her past as a student and her current research.

“Clara, a former student of mine, excelled when she was here and has had an outstanding research career at the Research Institute of Addictions at Buffalo,” Lisman said. “The center is interested in addictions from every different discipline and field … A lot of [Clara’s] work has been to illuminate the distinct problems of severely mentally ill substance abusing individuals, a very difficult population to work with.”

In closing, Bradizza shared insight into how one should deal with negative emotions to improve alcohol abuse. Her study promotes a method of treatment involves the direct experiencing of emotion without the help of a substance in order to wean off the abused substance.

“This is called mindfulness and essentially entails for one to sit with the hurt,” Bradizza said. “Prolonged Exposure Therapy involves the repeated exposure to imaginal situations that are associated with the negative effect and substance abuse.”