Dr. Lara Coughlin

Biography

Lara Coughlin is an Assistant Professor in the Medical School and a Faculty Associate in the Department of Psychology at the University of Michigan. She received her undergraduate degree from Davidson College in North Carolina and earned her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Virginia Tech. Dr. Coughlin completed a pre-doctoral internship at the Durham VAMC and a NIAAA T32 post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Michigan Addiction Center before joining the faculty. Her research interests focus on applied behavioral economic research, with an emphasis on human choice behavior and decision-making related to health and health behavior change. Specifically, her work examines the choices individuals make regarding immediate versus delayed rewards, substance use, and the impact on health and educational outcomes. Dr. Coughlin investigates behavioral patterns related to substance use in community-based settings, particularly among hard-to-reach populations in rural areas. Her current research includes the remote delivery of interventions that use text messaging and app-based platforms to explore behavioral economic risk factors and mechanisms of behavior change for individuals misusing substances. Additionally, she is clinically active at the University of Michigan Addiction Treatment Service, which provides multidisciplinary, evidence-based approaches to treating substance use disorders.

Research Interests