My current research interests focus on the epidemiology of drug use disorders and in the association of drug use disorders with psychiatric comorbidity. I am particularly interested on the epidemiology of ecstasy use/club drugs among adolescents and young adults, on the epidemiology of extramedical opioid analgesic use and prescription drug use and on the epidemiology of gambling and pathological gambling among adolescents and adults. I am also interested in risk and protective factors for drug abuse/dependence, in drug use and mental health problems among minorities/underserved populations as well as in preventive interventions in drug use/misuse. In those capacities, I have applied Biostatistics methods (such as Survival Analysis- Cox proportional hazard models with time-dependent covariates, Generalized Estimating Equations, Latent Class Analysis and Growth Mixture models) to address my research interests.

epidemiology of drug use, epidemiology of club drugs, substance use disorders, pathological gambling, problem gambling, epidemiology of gambling disorders in adolescence.

Predoctoral Research Fellowship- FAPESP (São Paulo State Research Foundation, Brazil), 2001-2003

Postdoctoral Overseas Research Fellowship- CNPq (National Council of Research, Brazil), 2004-2005

American Psychiatric Association Research Colloquium for Junior Investigators Award, May 2, 2004

Incentive grant for Young investigators Award- Institute for Research on Pathological gambling and related disorders, Division on Addictions, Harvard Medical School, 2004-2005

American Psychiatric Association Research Colloquium for Junior Investigators Award,May 20, 2006

Elected Associate Member, The College on Problems of Drug Dependence, August 01 2006.

NIDA Women and Gender Junior Investigator Travel Award, 2007

Member- The College on Problems of Drug Dependence Under-represented Minority Committee- 2008-2010

1RO3 DA020923 Martins (PI) 09/30/05 – 06/30/08

PREDICTORS OF ADOLESCENT ECSTASY USE IN THE NATIONAL SURVEY OF PARENTS AND YOUTH

1 Ontario Problem Gambling Research Centre grant Martins (PI) 03/31/07- 03/30/08

SUBTYPING GAMBLING BEHAVIORS IN THE CANADIAN GENERAL POPULATION

1 R21 DA020667 Martins (PI) 05/15/07– 04/30/10

TRENDS IN PROBLEMS RELATED TO EXTRAMEDICAL USE OF ANALGESICS

1 RO3 DA023434 Martins (PI) 09/01/08 – 06/30/10

TRENDS IN NONMEDICAL PRESCRIPTION DRUG USE AND ABUSE/DEPENDENCE AMONG ADOLESCENTS

1 RO1 HD060072 Martins (PI) 03/01/09 – 02/28/13

PREDICTORS OF PATHOLOGICAL GAMBLING AMONG AFRICAN-AMERICAN YOUNG ADULTS

Journal Articles (signifies peer review)

Published or In Press

Severtson G, Hedden SL, Martins SS, Latimer WW. Patterns of cognitive impairments among heroin and cocaine users: The association with self-reported learning disabilities and infectious disease. Journal of Learning Disabilities, in press.

Hedden SL, Martins SS, Malcolm RJ, Floyd L, Cavanaugh CE, Latimer WW. Patterns of illegal substance use in an alcohol dependent population: Results from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, in press.

Alexandre PK, Martins SS, Patrick R. Disparities in Adequate Mental Health Care for Past-Year Major Depressive Episodes among Caucasian and Hispanic Youth. Psychiatric Services, 2009, 60(10):1365-71.

Martins SS, Keyes KM, Storr CL, Zhu H, Chilcoat HD. Pathways between nonmedical opioid use/dependence and psychiatric disorders: results from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions . Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 2009, 103(1-2):16-24.

Eaton WW, Martins SS, Nestadt G, Bienvenu OJ, Clarke D, Alexandre PK. The Burden of Mental Disorders. Epidemiologic Reviews, 2008, 30:1-14.

Alexandre PK, Patrick R, Beauliere A, Martins SS. Race differentials in employment effects of psychological distress: a study of non-Hispanic Whites and African-Americans in the United States. The Social Science Journal, 2009, 49:201-210.

Martins SS, Alexandre PK. The association of Ecstasy use and academic performance among adolescents in two U.S. national surveys. Addictive Behaviors, 2009, 34(1):9-16.

Keyes KM, Martins SS, Hasin DS. Prevalence, correlates, and comorbidity of ecstasy use among young adults in the United States: results from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 2008, 97 (1-2):139-49.

Martins SS, Storr CL, Zhu H, Chilcoat HD. Correlates of extramedical use of Oxycontin® and other analgesic opioids among the US general population. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, in press.

Martins SS, Storr CL, Alexandre PK, Chilcoat HD. Adolescent Ecstasy use in the National Survey of Parents and Youth: the role of sensation-seeking, peer drug use and parental monitoring. Addictive Behaviors, 2008, 33(7):919-33.

Martins SS, Storr CL, Alexandre PK, Chilcoat HD. Do adolescent Ecstasy users have different attitudes towards drugs when compared to Marijuana users? Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 2008, 94(1-3):63-72.

Martins SS, Storr CL, Ialongo NS, Chilcoat HD. Gender differences in mental health characteristics and gambling among African-American adolescent gamblers. American Journal on Addictions, 126-134, 2008.

Ghandour L, Martins SS, Chilcoat HD. Understanding the patterns and distribution of opioid analgesic dependence symptoms using a latent empirical approach. International Journal of Methods in Psychiatry Research, 2008; 17(2):89-103.

Sabbatini da Silva Lobo D, Vallada H, Knight J, Martins SS, Tavares H, Gentil V, Kennedy J. Dopamine genes and pathological gambling in discordant sib-pairs. Journal of Gambling Studies, 2007, 23(4):421-433.

Martins SS, Ghandour L, Chilcoat H. Profile of Dependence Symptoms among Extramedical Analgesic Users. A generalized estimating equations approach. Addictive Behaviors, 2007, 32(10):2003-19.

Martins SS, Storr CL, Ialongo NS, Chilcoat HD. Mental health and gambling in urban female adolescents. Journal of Adolescent Health, 2007; 40(5): 463-5.

Martins SS, Ghandour L, Chilcoat H. Pathways in Ecstasy use and other drug use. Addictive Behaviors, 2007; 32(7): 1511-8.

Martins SS, Copersino M, Soderstrom CA, Smith GS, Dischinger PC, McDuff DR, Hebel JR, Kerns TJ, Ho SM, Read KM, Gorelick DA. Sociodemographic characteristics associated with drug use status in a trauma inpatient population. Journal of Addictive Diseases, 2007; 26(2):53-62.

Martins SS, Copersino M, Soderstrom CA, Smith GS, Dischinger PC, McDuff DR, Hebel JR, Kerns TJ, Ho SM, Read KM, Gorelick DA. Risk of psychoactive substance dependence in a trauma inpatient population. Journal of Addictive Diseases, 2007; 26(1): 71-77.

Martins SS, Mazzotti G, Chilcoat H. Recent-onset Ecstasy users: association with other drug use, psychiatric comorbidity and deviant behaviors. Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, 2006; 14(3): 275-86.

Martins SS, Mazzotti G, Chilcoat HD. Trends in Ecstasy use in USA from 1995 to 2001: comparison with marijuana users and association with other drug use. Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology 2005; 13(3): 244-52.

Martins SS, Tavares H, Lobo DS, Galleti AM, Gentil V: Pathological gambling, gender and risk-taking behaviors Addictive Behaviors 2004; 29(6): 1231-1235.

Tavares H, Martins SS, Lobo DS, Silveira C, Gentil V, Hodgins D. Factors at play in faster progression for female pathological gamblers: an exploratory analysis. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry 2003; 64 (4): 433-438.

Martins SS, Lobo DSS, Tavares H, Gentil V. Pathological gambling in women: a review. Rev. Hosp. Clín. Fac. Med. S. Paulo 2002; 57(5):235-242.

Tavares H, Martins SS, Zilberman ML, el-Guebaly N. Gamblers and treatment-seeking: why haven’t they come earlier? Addictive Disorders and Their Treatment 2002; 1(2):65-69.