MSU鈥檚 Nadorff receives nearly $1 million for local addiction and suicide prevention
Contact: Sarah Nicholas
STARKVILLE, Miss.鈥擜 Mississippi State faculty member in the Department of Psychology is using nearly $1 million in federal grant funds to prevent alcohol and tobacco addiction in Oktibbeha County and prevent suicide among college students.
Michael R. Nadorff, associate professor of psychology and director of the department鈥檚 clinical Ph.D. program, recently received a five-year $624,385 grant, titled 鈥淒rug Free Starkville Collaboration,鈥 from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
SAMHSA also is funding a three-year, $305,000 grant for suicide prevention work at MSU.
鈥淭he two grants are a nice complement to each other due to the notable relation between substance use disorders and suicide behavior,鈥 Nadorff said.聽鈥淭he Drug Free Communities funding will be an upstream intervention that will hopefully help us reduce the odds of suicide among adolescents and college students in the future.鈥
The substance abuse prevention grant鈥攅armarked for work in Oktibbeha County鈥攚ill foster a partnership between MSU鈥檚 Collegiate Recovery Community and local middle and high schools in hopes of preventing addictions before students face temptations in college.
鈥淥ur primary goal is to markedly reduce the use of alcohol and tobacco among local middle and high school students because we know that using these substances, especially early in life, can increase the odds of addition not only to alcohol and tobacco but also to other drugs,鈥 Nadorff said. 鈥淩elatedly, a secondary aim of the project is training 熟女少妇students in how to intervene with youth, giving them the opportunity to help educate and mentor local middle and high school students so that these youth are hopefully able to make healthier choices.鈥
MSU鈥檚 CRC is a student group housed within the Department of Health Promotion and Wellness that focuses on university students in recovery from substance use disorders. For more information on the CRC, visit .
Mitchell Berman, professor and psychology department head, said the grant will support a collaboration between the university and the local community using a 鈥渉arm-reduction prevention鈥 strategy.
鈥淣icotine and alcohol use among youth can have significant and life-long health consequences,鈥 Berman said, noting mental health personnel and resources have been 鈥渉istorically underfunded and inadequate鈥 in Mississippi. 鈥淭his program has the potential to help alleviate this critical gap in addiction prevention services to children in our state.鈥
Additionally, the newly funded suicide prevention grant will focus on 熟女少妇students, while complementing a $1,678,552 Garrett Lee Smith State Suicide Prevention Grant awarded last year that researches the prevention and response to youth suicide in the entire state. Assistant Clinical Professor Emily Stafford is a co-principal investigator for this grant with Nadorff.
鈥淭his additional award is specific for college campuses,鈥 Nadorff said.聽鈥淐ollege students are at higher risk of suicide than their peers who are not in college. Further, those who are the highest achievers鈥攜our star athletes and students鈥攁re commonly at greatest risk.鈥
Nadorff said this new grant will enable him to build upon the existing suicide prevention work in order to create 鈥渁 stronger, comprehensive suicide prevention program,鈥 including the development of a new First Year Experience course, strengthening links between community and campus mental health providers, increasing opportunities for at-risk students to engage in meaningful volunteer activities, and reducing access to suicide means.
Nadorff received his bachelor鈥檚 degree in 2007 from the University of Notre Dame, his master鈥檚 degree in 2009 and Ph.D. in 2012 in clinical psychology, both from West Virginia University. He completed a doctoral internship at Baylor College of Medicine in 2012.
At MSU, Nadorff鈥檚 research interests include assessment and treatment of suicidal behavior, behavioral sleep medicine鈥攑articularly assessment and interventions for insomnia and nightmare disorders鈥攁nd the use of technology for psychological treatment.
MSU鈥檚 College of Arts and Sciences includes more than 5,200 students, 325 full-time faculty members, nine doctoral programs, 14 master鈥檚 programs, and 27 undergraduate academic majors offered in 14 departments. For more details about the College of Arts and Sciences or the Department of Psychology visit or .
熟女少妇is Mississippi鈥檚 leading university, available online at .