College of Medicine
Lewis Lab
Led by Ben Lewis · Psychiatry
What we study
The Lewis Lab studies how alcohol affects the brain and behavior, focusing on recovery treatments like cognitive training. They use behavioral and neurocognitive methods, including brain scans and psychological tests.
What working here is like
- Clinical
- Surveys & interviews
- Computational
- Human participants
- Coding required
- Projects
- 9
- Papers
- 5
Current projects
Enhancing Recovery Outcomes in Alcohol Use Disorder
Developing cognitive training to improve recovery and treatment success in alcohol use disorder.
Project Addiction and Patient Care: Assessing Insight among Impaired Healthcare Professionals
The lab studies how healthcare workers in treatment for substance use understand the risks their use poses to patients. Using a new questionnaire, 183 workers were followed from the start of treatment to 30 days and discharge, and their scores rose from 3.44 to 6.35, showing treatment improves this insight.
From the Spring 2025 UF Undergraduate Research Symposium · abstract book, p. 566
Show 7 more projectsShow fewer
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder as a Mediating Factor in Addiction: Effects on Cravings and Rehabilitation Adherence
The lab looks at how obsessive‑compulsive symptoms affect people in substance‑use treatment. They studied 1,878 patients, of whom 168 had severe OCD. Those with OCD had higher cravings and were more likely to drop out of treatment. The study used statistical matching to show OCD likely causes worse outcomes.
From the Spring 2025 UF Undergraduate Research Symposium · abstract book, p. 505
Comparing Treatment Outcomes in Voluntary vs. Involuntary Substance Use Disorder Admissions
The lab compares recovery measures like cravings, PTSD symptoms, and mood between patients who entered substance‑use treatment voluntarily (608 people) and those placed under involuntary civil commitment (104 people) at entry, 30 days, and discharge. They use statistical models to see if outcomes differ.
From the Spring 2025 UF Undergraduate Research Symposium · abstract book, p. 448
Spiritual Coping in Substance Use Treatment
The lab looks at how spirituality helps people in drug treatment. The student measured spiritual coping, confidence to stay abstinent, and cravings at admission, 30 days, and discharge, finding that positive spiritual coping rose (p<.001) and was linked to higher self‑efficacy (p=.001) and lower craving (p=.005).
From the Spring 2025 UF Undergraduate Research Symposium · abstract book, p. 435
Utilizing Machine Learning Approaches to Predict Dropout from Substance Use Disorder Treatment
The lab uses machine learning to predict which patients might leave substance use disorder treatment early. The student trains a random forest model on data from 2,065 patients and tests it on the remaining 30% to evaluate accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity.
From the Spring 2025 UF Undergraduate Research Symposium · abstract book, p. 339
Early Initiation of Cannabis and Alcohol Impact Symptom Severity in Substance Use Disorder
The lab studied 755 patients who used cannabis and 1,352 who used alcohol before age 17. Earlier alcohol use was linked to stronger cravings and lower confidence in staying off alcohol; earlier cannabis use was linked to stronger cravings and lower confidence in staying off drugs.
From the Spring 2025 UF Undergraduate Research Symposium · abstract book, p. 282
The Role of Peer Social Support in Substance Use Disorder Treatment and Readmission Outcomes
The researchers tracked how much support people with substance‑use problems received from friends at the start and end of treatment, then examined whether those support levels predicted whether they returned for more treatment later. They compared early versus late support effects.
From the Spring 2025 UF Undergraduate Research Symposium · abstract book, p. 146
Elucidating the Impact of Comorbid Eating Disorders on Treatment Outcomes in Substance Use Disorder Patients
The lab examines how having an eating disorder affects recovery from drug or alcohol addiction. The student analyzed patient records to compare cravings and emotional symptoms between those with and without eating disorders.
From the Spring 2025 UF Undergraduate Research Symposium · abstract book, p. 110
Summaries are written by AI in plain language from public symposium abstracts and may be imperfect.
Recent papers, explained
- Alcohol Use and Trajectory Changes in Mnemonic Discrimination Among Older Adult Non‐Problem Drinkers
2026 · Alcoholism Clinical and Experimental Research
Checks if older drinkers have worse memory than non-drinkers.
- Mental healthcare stigma and utilization among medical and physician assistant students
2026 · Journal of American College Health
Finds medical students with different genders or sexual orientations have different mental health experiences.
Show 3 more papersShow fewer
- An Investigation of Socially Relevant Moderators of Childhood Substance Familiarity
2026 · Journal of Child & Adolescent Substance Use
Looks at how social factors affect kids' knowledge of drugs.
- 5.52 Investigating the Causal Relationship Between Substance Familiarity and Early Adolescent Substance Use
2026 · Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
- Investigation into the psychometric properties of the Brief Religious Coping Scale (Brief RCOPE) in adults with substance use disorder
2025 · Addictive Behaviors
Plain-language summaries are AI-written and reviewed by us; check the paper for details.
How to reach out
Ben Lewis hasn't set up this page yet. You can also look them up in the UF directory (search “Ben Lewis”).