School of Psychology

Dr Nina Pocuca

Postdoctoral Research Fellow & Research Fellow
School of Psychology
+61 7 344 32569
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Researcher biography

Nina Pocuca is a Research Fellow with the Lives Lived Well Research Group, in the School of Psychology, The University of Queensland. Nina works on the Meaningful Outcomes Centre of Research Excellence, which aims to implement routine outcome measures and feedback (ROMF) in the alcohol and other drug (AOD) sector to increase its capacity to deliver evidence-based and cost-effective care.

Nina completed her PhD with the National Centre for Youth Substance Use Research at Queensland University of Technology (2019), where her research examined the interplay between personality and peer norms, on alcohol use in young people. Following her PhD, Nina completed postdoctoral fellowships at the University of California San Diego (UCSD; 2019-2020) and the University of Montreal (2020-2022). Nina's postdoctoral research at UCSD focused on the association between substance use and cognitive function, while her Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)-funded postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Montreal used 25+ years of longitudinal data to examine factors associated with comorbidity in mental health and addiction.

Nina's interests lie in examining factors associated with comorbidity in addiction and mental health, understanding the association between substance use and cognitive function, and translating research findings stemming from these areas into practice.

Current projects include:

  • Projects as part of the Meaningful Outcomes Centre of Research Excellence:
    • Determining the most effective way to maximize the uptake of ROMF among AOD services, clients, and staff
    • Examining the impact of ROMF on:
      • Client AOD treatment adherence and outcomes
      • AOD service access, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness
      • Staff satisfaction, burnout, and turnover
    • Examining the short- and long-term client outcomes of different AOD service types and settings using ROMF and data linkage
    • Identifying which AOD service types and settings have the best outcomes and are most cost effective for different types of AOD, polydrug use and comorbid mental health presentations using machine learning
  • Co-design and acceptability testing of a drug checking/ pill testing brief intervention
  • Using longitudinal birth cohort data to examine the link between alcohol, cannabis and polysubstance use, and cognitive development in youth (collaboration with researchers at the University of Montreal)

There are current PhD opportunities available as part of the Meaningful Outcomes Centre of Research Excellence. See link below for further information:

Graduate School - University of Queensland (uq.edu.au)

Nina is also currently available to supervise honours students.

Publications

Journal Articles (18)
Conference Papers (3)

Journal Articles

Pocuca, Nina, Chadi, Nicholas, Vergunst, Francis, Parent, Sophie, Côté, Sylvana. M., Boivin, Michel, Tremblay, Richard E., Séguin, Jean R. and Castellanos-Ryan, Natalie (2023). Prospective Polysubstance use Profiles Among Adolescents with Early-onset Cannabis Use, and their Association with Cannabis Outcomes in Emerging Adulthood. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction. doi: 10.1007/s11469-022-01005-7
Davidson, Lily, Piatkowski, Timothy, Pocuca, Nina and Hides, Leanne (2022). Modelling the Relationship Between Environmental and Social Cognitive Determinants of Risky Drinking Among Emerging Adults. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 1-20. doi: 10.1007/s11469-022-00978-9
Pocuca, Nina, Parent, Sophie, Côté, Sylvana, Boivin, Michel, Tremblay, Richard E., Séguin, Jean R. and Castellanos-Ryan, Natalie (2022). The moderating role of sex and self-, teacher-, and father-reported ADHD hyperactivity-impulsivity symptoms, on the association between early adolescent internalizing symptoms and substance use. Addictive Behaviors, 135 107437, 107437. doi: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2022.107437
Livet, Audrey, Pétrin‐Pomerleau, Philippe, Pocuca, Nina, Afzali, Mohammad H., Potvin, Stephane and Conrod, Patricia J. (2022). Development of the French version of the Davos Assessment of Cognitive Biases Scale in a non‐clinical sample of young adults. Early Intervention in Psychiatry, 17 (2), 141-148. doi: 10.1111/eip.13297
Pocuca, Nina, London-Nadeau, Kira, Geoffroy, Marie-Claude, Chadi, Nicholas, Séguin, Jean R., Parent, Sophie, Boivin, Michel, Tremblay, Richard E., Côté, Sylvana M. and Castellanos-Ryan, Natalie (2022). Changes in emerging adults’ alcohol and cannabis use from before to during the COVID-19 pandemic: evidence from a prospective birth cohort. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 36 (7), 786-797. doi: 10.1037/adb0000826
Walter, Zoe, Quinn, Catherine A., Dingle, Genevieve, Pocuca, Nina, Baker, Amanda L., Beck, Alison, De Andrade, Dominique, Toombs, Maree and Hides, Leanne (2021). FullFix: a randomised controlled trial of a telephone delivered transdiagnostic intervention for comorbid substance and mental health problems in young people. BMJ Open, 11 (10) e045607, e045607. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2020-045607
Pocuca, Nina, Walter, T. Jordan, Minassian, Arpi, Young, Jared W., Geyer, Mark A. and Perry, William (2021). The effects of cannabis use on cognitive function in healthy aging: a systematic scoping review. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 36 (5), 673-685. doi: 10.1093/arclin/acaa105
Hides, Leanne, Quinn, Catherine, Chan, Gary, Cotton, Susan, Pocuca, Nina, Connor, Jason P., Witkiewitz, Katie, Daglish, Mark R. C., Young, Ross Mc D. and Stoyanov, Stoyan (2021). Telephone‐based motivational interviewing enhanced with individualised personality‐specific coping skills training for young people with alcohol‐related injuries and illnesses accessing emergency or rest/recovery services: a randomized controlled trial (QuikFix). Addiction, 116 (3), 474-484. doi: 10.1111/add.15146
Jordan Walter, T., Pocuca, Nina, Young, Jared W., Geyer, Mark A., Minassian, Arpi and Perry, William (2021). The relationship between cannabis use and cognition in people with bipolar disorder: a systematic scoping review. Psychiatry Research, 297 113695, 113695. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2020.113695
Pocuca, Nina, Young, Jared W., MacQueen, David A., Letendre, Scott, Heaton, Robert K., Geyer, Mark A., Perry, William, Grant, Igor and Minassian, Arpi (2020). Sustained attention and vigilance deficits associated with HIV and a history of methamphetamine dependence. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 215 108245, 108245. doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2020.108245
Pocuca, Nina, Quinn, Catherine A., Do, Lucia and Hides, Leanne (2020). Social cognitive moderators of the relationship between social anxiety and alcohol outcomes in young people. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 81 (1), 95-103. doi: 10.15288/jsad.2020.81.95
Pocuca, Nina, Hides, Leanne, Quinn, Catherine A., White, Melanie J., Mewton, Louise and Loxton, Natalie J. (2019). An exploratory study of the relationship between neuroticism and problematic drinking in emerging adulthood, and the moderating effect of social anxiety. Personality and Individual Differences, 145, 132-144. doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2019.03.022
Quinn, Catherine A., Archibald, Karis, Nykiel, Luke, Pocuca, Nina, Hides, Leanne, Allan, Julaine and Moloney, Gerard (2019). Does self-efficacy moderate the effect of gambling advertising on problem gambling behaviors?. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 33 (5), 503-509. doi: 10.1037/adb0000485
Pocuca, Nina, Hides, Leanne, Quinn, Catherine A., White, Melanie J., Mewton, Louise, Newton, Nicola Clare, Slade, Tim, Chapman, Cath, Teesson, Maree, Andrews, Gavin, Allsop, Steve and McBride, Nyanda (2019). The interactive effects of perceived peer drinking and personality profiles on adolescent drinking: a prospective cohort study. Addiction, 114 (3), 450-461. doi: 10.1111/add.14469
Quinn, Catherine A., Hides, Leanne, de Andrade, Dominique, Pocuca, Nina, Wilson, Megan and Kavanagh, David J. (2019). Impact of a brief psychoeducational intervention for reducing alcohol use and related harm in school leavers. Drug and Alcohol Review, 38 (4) dar.12920, 339-348. doi: 10.1111/dar.12920
Pocuca, Nina, Hides, Leanne, Quinn, Catherine A., White, Melanie J., Mewton, Louise, Newton, Nicola Clare, Slade, Tim, Chapman, Cath, Andrews, Gavin, Teesson, Maree, Allsop, Steve and McBride, Nyanda (2017). The interactive effects of personality profiles and perceived peer drinking on early adolescent drinking. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 32 (2), 230-236. doi: 10.1037/adb0000322
Pocuca, Nina, Hides, Leanne, Zelenko, Oksana, Quek, Lake-Hui, Stoyanov, Stoyan, Tulloch, Kristen, Johnson, Daniel, Tjondronegoro, Dian and Kavanagh, David J. (2016). Erratum: Corrigendum to “Initial prototype testing of Ray's Night Out: A new mobile app targeting risky drinking in young people” (Computers in Human Behavior (2016) 54 (207–214) (S0747563215300443) (10.1016/j.chb.2015.07.033)). Computers in Human Behavior, 64, 939-939. doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2016.06.046
Pocuca, Nina, Hides, Leanne, Zelenko, Oksana, Quek, Lake-Hui, Stoyanov, Stoyan, Tulloch, Kristen, Johnson, Daniel, Tjondronegoro, Dian and Kavanagh, David J. (2016). Initial prototype testing of Ray's Night Out: a new mobile app targeting risky drinking in young people. Computers in Human Behavior, 54, 207-214. doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2015.07.033

Conference Papers

Pocuca, N., Hides, L., Quinn, C. A., Mewton, L., Newton, N. C., Slade, T., Chapman, C., Andrews, G., Teesson, M., Birrell, L., Allsop, S. and McBride, N. (2019). The moderating effect of impulsivity on the relationship between anxiety sensitivity and drinking to intoxication in young people. 42nd Annual Scientific Meeting of the Research-Society-on-Alcoholism (RSA), Minneapolis, MN USA, 22-26 June 2019. Hoboken, NJ USA: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing.
Quinn, Catherine A., Hides, Leanne, Walters, Zoe, Riordan, Benjamin C., De Andrade, Dominique, Connor, Jason P., Merrill, Jennifer E., Ward, Rose Marie, Chan, Gary C. K., Pocuca, Nina, Cotton, Susan, Daglish, Mark, Mergard, Lance, Young, Ross and Kavanagh, David (2019). Symposium: novel approaches to address the complexities of youth substance use. APSAD 2019 Conference, Hobart, TAS Australia, 10–13 November 2019. Chichester, West Sussex United Kingdom: Wiley-Blackwell.
Quinn, Catherine, Nykiel, Luke, Pocuca, Nina, Allan, Julaine, Moloney, Gerard and Hides, Leanne (2019). Latent class analysis of trauma, PTSD, addictive behaviours and mental health concerns. 16th European Society for Traumatic Stress Studies Conference, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 14-16 June 2019. Abingdon, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis. doi: 10.1080/20008198.2019.1613836