RESEARCH
Together with collaborators from the Cognition and Emotion Research Centre (Australian Catholic University), University of Queensland, University of New South Wales, and University College London, Dr. Kim has been involved in various research projects exploring cognitive processing abilities within the context of substance dependence. The following projects have been published in well-respected, peer-reviewed journals.
2019. Social cognition impairments in long-term opiate users in treatment.
This study aimed to investigate whether three important aspects of social cognition (facial emotion recognition, theory of mind (ToM) and rapid facial mimicry) differ between long-term opiate users and healthy controls. The findings indicate that long-term opiate users exhibit abnormalities in these three distinct areas of social-cognitive processing, pointing to the need for additional work to establish how social-cognitive functioning relates to functional outcomes in this group. Such work may ultimately inform the development of interventions aimed at improving treatment outcomes for long-term opiate users. This study was published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology.
Gill Terrett, Kimberly Mercuri, , Elizabeth Pizarro-Campagna, Laila Hugrass, H Valerie Curran, Julie D Henry, & Peter G Rendell
2018. Episodic foresight deficit in regular, but not recreational, cannabis users.
In light of the findings that chronic opiate users displayed deficits in the capacity for episodic-foresight, this study aimed to explore the same ability but within a different drug using sample, and whether any deficit would be influenced by frequency of use. These data found that regular cannabis smokers (as defined by those who reported least three days per week) were significantly poorer in their ability for episodic foresight, relative to both recreational-smokers (who reported weekly or less frequency) and cannabis-naieve individuals. Notably, this deficits also extended to memory recall suggesting the reasons underlying the episodic foresight deficit differ from what was observed in chronic opiate users. This study was recently accepted for publication in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, and the third published study from Dr Kim's PhD thesis. This paper has received recent media interest from Psypost, The Vice, and Inverse (see below).
Kimberly Mercuri, Gill Terrett, Julie D. Henry, Morgan Elliott, H. Val Curran & Peter G. Rendell
2017. Stereotype threat and social function in opioid substitution therapy patients.
Social functioning is an important aspect of recovery, yet these data indicate that people with a history of drug abuse who believe they are the target of stereotypical attitudes have poorer social functioning. This paper was published in the British Journal of Clinical Psychology.
Courtney von Hippel, Julie D. Henry, Gill Terrett, Kimberly Mercuri, Karen McAlear & Peter G. Rendell
2016. Deconstructing the nature of episodic foresight deficits associated with chronic opiate use.
This study aimed to better understand potential mechanisms underlying the episodic foresight deficit identified in the 2015 study. This study was the first to show that a specific impairment in self-projection into the future appears to contribute to the problems with episodic foresight seen in this clinical group. This study was published in the British Journal of Clinical Psychology in 2016, and was the second published study from Dr Kim's PhD thesis.
Kimberly Mercuri, Gill Terrett, Julie D. Henry, H. Val Curran & Peter G. Rendell
2014. Episodic foresight deficits in long-term opiate users.
Episodic foresight refers to the capacity to mentally travel forward in time and has been linked to a wide variety of important functional behaviours. These data provide important preliminary evidence that episodic foresight might be particularly susceptible to the neurocognitive effects of opiate use, as the difficulties identified were not secondary to more general executive control or episodic memory impairment. Because a number of widely used relapse prevention protocols require the ability to mentally project into the future, these data have potentially impottant practical implications in relation to treatment of substance dependence disorders. This paper was published in the journal, Psychopharmacology in 2014 and was the first published study from Dr Kim's PhD.
Kimberly Mercuri, Gill Terrett, Julie D. Henry, Phoebe E. Bailey, H. Val Curran & Peter G. Rendell
2014. Prospective memory impairment in long-term opiate users.
The main objective of this study was to assess the performance of long-term opiate users on a laboratory measure of prospective memory (the ability to perform intended actions in the future). These data indicated that prospective memory in sensitive to long-term opiate use. Importantly, opiate users suffer from generalised deficits in this ability, regardless of the task demands, which may have significant implications for day-to-day functioning. This paper was published in the journal, Psychopharmacology.
Gill Terrett, Skye N. McLennan, Julie D. Henry, Kathryn Biernacki, Kimberly Mercuri, H. Valerie Curran, & Peter G. Rendell