{"id":223423,"date":"2025-01-16T07:30:53","date_gmt":"2025-01-16T12:30:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=223423"},"modified":"2025-03-20T11:01:42","modified_gmt":"2025-03-20T15:01:42","slug":"helping-the-teen-brain-bounce-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2025\/01\/helping-the-teen-brain-bounce-back\/","title":{"rendered":"Helping the Teen Brain Bounce Back"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Sarah
Sarah Feldstein Ewing recently joined the UConn Health faculty as the Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Psychiatry. (Courtesy of Sarah Feldstein Ewing)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For decades, scientists have used brain imaging techniques \u2013 like PET scans or MRIs \u2013 to study psychoactive drugs. Antidepressant trials, for example, examine the brain of a depressed patient before and after taking the medication to help determine whether it is working as intended.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sarah Feldstein Ewing, a clinical child\/adolescent psychologist, had an idea to adapt this framework to study the effectiveness of another type of psychological intervention: therapy.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat if we played snippets of therapy sessions back to people while they were in the scanner?\u201d she wondered. \u201cThat could tell us a little bit more about how the brain changes in therapy.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Feldstein Ewing, who joined the UConn Health faculty earlier this year as the Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Psychiatry in UConn School of Medicine, began testing this idea with adults and adolescents in therapy for addiction treatment.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sure enough, she found that by measuring blood flow to different parts of the brain, she could determine which neural systems were being activated. Was it the reward system, associated with desire and habit-forming? Or the default mode network, associated with self-reflection and memory?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As these brain regions lit up, so did a new conclusion for Feldstein Ewing\u2019s research.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She observed that the effects of therapeutic interventions on the brain were often reversed between young people and adults. In adults, the reward system was activated; in young people who received the same therapeutic intervention, the default mode network kicked into gear.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This makes sense, Feldstein Ewing explains, given the diverse motivations for substance use between teens and adults. Addicted adults are more likely to use drugs \u2013 even the caffeine in a daily cup of coffee \u2013 to stave off withdrawal effects<\/span>, like the headaches and irritability that come from skipping a habitual morning joe.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFor adults, they are doing it because they know bad things will happen if they don\u2019t,\u201d Feldstein Ewing explains. \u201cBut kids don\u2019t use in those kinds of ways. Kids use because they go to a party and there\u2019s a ton of whatever \u2013 it could be vaping, cannabis, hard seltzers. They\u2019re more exploratory.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

These findings suggest that different approaches are needed to help young people recover from substance use disorders and establish healthy coping mechanisms.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, these interventions were developed for adults, and we’re trying to shove them in, like \u2018square peg, round hole\u2019-ing them,\u201d Feldstein Ewing says. \u201cIt doesn’t make sense.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the next phase of her research, Feldstein Ewing is looking to understand how clinicians can choose more effective techniques to support teen recovery. Using her novel MRI approach, she is exploring the efficacy of group therapy and new styles of motivational interviewing that have the potential to benefit countless young people.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHistorically, it\u2019s been thought that teens are all doom and gloom, and that they\u2019re never going to get better,\u201d she says. \u201cBut I don\u2019t think that\u2019s the case.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While there is a popular stereotype that teens are overly susceptible to peer pressure and desires to confirm, Feldstein Ewing spins this a different way, saying that teens are \u201cvery naturally socially gifted.\u201d Because of this, peer-to-peer interventions and group therapy may be even more effective for this age group than for adults.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTeens can very quickly evaluate what\u2019s happening socially and can modify their behavior accordingly,\u201d Feldstein Ewing says. \u201cThey are flexible, in these very savvy ways that you lose as you get into adulthood. So, we\u2019re trying to figure out how to harness and enhance some of these natural gifts.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A Career of Care<\/h2>\n

Feldstein Ewing has long been interested in adolescent development and addiction recovery. Growing up, she says, \u201cI had a lot of friends who happened to really get waylaid by different kinds of drugs. It was just so confusing to me, how these amazing, vibrant kids could just get derailed.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She studied neuroscience at Macalaster College in Saint Paul, Minnesota, received her Ph.D. at the University of New Mexico, and embarked on postdoctoral work at Brown University, all the while pursuing answers to the questions of \u201cwhat can the brain tell us about why people sometimes make terrible decisions, and how can we get people back to their best selves?\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Prior to joining the UConn Health faculty, Feldstein-Ewing was a clinical psychology professor at the University of Rhode Island (the College of Health\u2019s endowed Prochaska Professor of Population Health). Before that, she taught as a professor of psychiatry at the Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) and directed the Adolescent Behavioral Health Clinic at OHSU Doernbecher Children\u2019s Hospital.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While in Oregon, she helped launch the groundbreaking ABCD (Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development) study, the largest-ever cohort study of teen brain development. It follows over 10,000 healthy children from ages 9-10 through adulthood, tracking how their brains develop, and how this process is influenced by personal and global factors \u2013 such as drug use or a pandemic. Now in its ninth year, the ABCD study is providing vital new data for researchers across various fields.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In her new role as the Vice Chair for Research in UConn Health\u2019s psychiatry department, Feldstein Ewing is eager to use her impressive background to help support research development efforts across the school.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI have a special eye toward helping women and underrepresented scientists,\u201d she notes.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And as her personal scholarship progresses, she hopes to continue making a difference in the world of addiction treatment and recovery. If there\u2019s one thing she\u2019s learned from years spent studying the brain, she says, it\u2019s that there is always hope for flexibility and change.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe brain has a lot more capacity for recovery \u2013 even moment to moment \u2013 than we may have thought,\u201d she says. \u201cPeople don\u2019t necessarily have to stay stuck in these entrenched systems forever. They can get better. They can be resilient.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sarah Feldstein Ewing, the new Vice Chair for Research in UConn Health\u2019s Department of Psychiatry, wants to help young people thrive through adversity<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":175,"featured_media":223424,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2460,2231,2624,2291,2648,2076,1868,2235,179,2227],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2413],"class_list":["post-223423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty","category-health-well-being","category-blue","category-psychiatry","category-blue-research","category-research","category-meds","category-today-homepage","category-uconn-health","category-uconn-edu-homepage"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-26 02:22:56","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/175"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223423"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223423\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":223561,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223423\/revisions\/223561"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/223424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223423"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=223423"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=223423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}