Center Advisors, Treatment Development & Evaluation Core

Maureen A. Walton, MPH, PhD

Professor and Associate Chair for Research and Research Faculty Development in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Michigan (UM); Senior Associate Director at the UM Injury Prevention Center; Associate Chair for Child Research at the UM Addiction Center

Early Interventions; Substance Use; Violence

Contact

Maureen A. Walton, MPH, PhD
Professor and Associate Chair for Research and Research Faculty Development in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Michigan (UM); Senior Associate Director at the UM Injury Prevention Center; Associate Chair for Child Research at the UM Addiction Center

waltonma@med.umich.edu


Maureen Walton’s research focuses on prevention and early interventions to reduce substance use, violence, and injury, particularly among adolescents and young adults. She is a community psychologist and has expertise in harnessing technology (e.g., web, text messaging, social media, smartphone apps) for assessment and intervention delivery. She has worked with colleagues to develop evidenced-based single session interventions to reduce violence (e.g., SafERteens) and/or substance use (e.g., alcohol, cannabis, prescription drug misuse) among patients in medical settings. Recent lines of work focus on optimizing interventions, including testing combinations of telehealth and technology-delivered interventions for opioid misuse. She is also testing adaptive interventions for violence and alcohol misuse using a Sequential Multiple Assignment Randomized Controlled Trial (SMART) design. Finally, she collaborates with teams examining mobile health for assessment and intervention delivery, including conducting micro-randomized trials.

In her free time, she enjoys travel and reading.


Selected Publications
  • type-inpress
    1630454400
    9
    2021
    Czyz EK, King CA, Prouty D, Micol VJ, Walton MA, Nahum-Shani I. Adaptive intervention for prevention of adolescent suicidal behavior after hospitalization: A pilot sequential multiple assignment randomized trial. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.
  • type-inpress
    1630454400
    9
    2021
    Nahum-Shani I, Yap J, Kotov M, Klasjna P, Bonar EE, Cunningham RM, Murphy SA, Walton MA. Translating strategies for promoting engagement in mobile health: A micro-randomized feasibility trial. Health Psychology.
  • type-published
    1610668800
    1
    2021
    Coughlin LN, Nahum-Shani I, Philyaw-Kotov ML, Bonar EE, Rabbi M, Klasnja P, Murphy S, Walton MA. Developing an adaptive mobile intervention to address risky substance use among adolescents and emerging adults: Usability study. JMIR Mhealth Uhealth. 2021 Jan 15;9(1):e24424. doi: 10.2196/24424. PMID: 33448931; PMCID: PMC7846447.
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  • type-published
    1584057600
    3
    2020
    Bonar EE, Coughlin L, Roche JS, Philyaw-Kotov ML, Bixler EA, Sinelnikov S, Kolosh A, Cihak MJ, Cunningham RM, Walton MA. Prescription opioid misuse among adolescents and emerging adults in the United States: A scoping review. Prev Med. 2020 Mar;132:105972. doi: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2019.105972. PMID: 31904397; PMCID: PMC7024638.
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  • type-published
    1545264000
    12
    2018
    Cunningham RM, Walton MA, Carter PM. The major causes of death in children and adolescents in the United States. N Engl J Med. 2018 Dec 20;379(25):2468-2475. doi: 10.1056/NEJMsr1804754. PMID: 30575483; PMCID: PMC6637963.
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  • type-published
    1443657600
    10
    2015
    Cunningham RM, Chermack ST, Ehrlich PF, Carter PM, Booth BM, Blow FC, Barry KL, Walton MA. Alcohol interventions among underage drinkers in the ED: A randomized controlled trial. Pediatrics. 2015 Oct;136(4):e783-93. doi: 10.1542/peds.2015-1260. PMID: 26347440; PMCID: PMC4586730.
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  • type-published
    1398902400
    5
    2014
    Walton MA, Resko S, Barry KL, Chermack ST, Zucker RA, Zimmerman MA, Booth BM, Blow FC. A randomized controlled trial testing the efficacy of a brief cannabis universal prevention program among adolescents in primary care. Addiction. 2014 May;109(5):786-97. doi: 10.1111/add.12469. PMID: 24372937; PMCID: PMC3984620.
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  • type-published
    1280880000
    8
    2010
    Walton MA, Chermack ST, Shope JT, Bingham CR, Zimmerman MA, Blow FC, Cunningham RM. Effects of a brief intervention for reducing violence and alcohol misuse among adolescents: a randomized controlled trial. JAMA. 2010 Aug 4;304(5):527-35. doi: 10.1001/jama.2010.1066. PMID: 20682932; PMCID: PMC3560393.
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