Engelking, Hagan publish opioid addiction research

Yumeng Tao Engelking ’20 is just months into medical school, but her research from her undergraduate years at Cornell is already making a difference in the world of wellness.

She’s listed as the main author of a newly published peer-reviewed article in the Journal of Psychological Inquiry, “A Review of Medication-Assisted Treatment for Opioid Addiction,” which explains the medication options to treat addiction and explains the benefits and drawbacks of each one. 

For Engelking, this article means a lot. 

“This article holds a very personal purpose and is very meaningful for me,” Engelking said. “One of the reasons I decided to go to medical school comes down to my upbringing. My father passed away when I was very little because of a heroin overdose. That has had a significant impact on my family.”

Engelking and Assistant Professor of Psychology Christopher Hagan, the secondary author, are hopeful that this paper will help substance treatment centers, families, doctors, patients, or anyone looking for information about treatment. 

“Our country has a massive epidemic of opioid addiction and substance use problems that can often be lethal, and it’s very very difficult for people with that addiction to stop using these drugs,” Hagan said. “When people are looking to stop using, there are a variety of medications that can help and make it far more likely to succeed in the long term. This paper is a review of what those options are.”

Hagan says research on this topic is important right now because opioid overdose deaths are like nothing we’ve ever seen before in this country. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control, overdose deaths in the U.S. involving opioids increased from about 70,029 in 2020 to 80,816 in 2021. 

Engelking wrote the paper during her psychology Senior Seminar capstone course with Hagan. As an international student from China, she said she worked closely with Hagan and workshopped it with the Dungy Writing Studio. 

“The whole process really improved my self-confidence and made me feel like this is something that is doable,” Engelking said. “People think publishing a paper as an undergrad is scary and out of reach. But the fact is, it’s not out of reach at all if you really put in the work and if you find a good mentor like Professor Hagan, and if you really work hard–it is possible.”

Engelking says she’s passionate about helping people with this addiction because those trying to get clean often struggle with the financial means to get help and with the stigma that comes along with addiction. She wants this paper to bring people hope.

“When I was writing this paper, I was hoping to bring some hope showing that people do recover, people just need some extra help and there is medication out there to help people recover,” Engelking said.

As she continues with her classes in medical school she doesn’t know what her medical specialty will be just yet, but she knows this research and her family history will play a role in what she does in the future. 

Looking back, she’s grateful for those at Cornell who helped her get to where she’s at today.

“Every professor I met at Cornell was honestly just really amazing,” Engelking said. “They are very encouraging. They don’t just see you as an undergrad. They see you as potential scientists or they see you as someone who is going out there to do great stuff, and that’s very empowering.”

Engelking’s paper was selected for the Elizabeth A. Dahl, Ph.D., Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research by the Journal of Psychological Inquiry, which is given to the best paper in each issue.