Marissa Seamans

Dr. Marissa Seamans, PhD, MSPH, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology. Dr. Seamans’ research focuses on the intersection of social epidemiology and pharmacoepidemiology to address substance use and mental health. Her work explores the use of large healthcare databases to examine prescription drug use in families and the effectiveness of treatments for mental health and substance use disorders. Methodologically, Dr. Seamans’ research focuses on the development and application of innovative statistical tools and study designs for estimating population health effects using observational data.

Dr. Seamans received her BA in Comparative Literature and Society from Columbia University, Columbia College, her MSPH and PhD in Epidemiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Drug Dependence Epidemiology and Mental Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Education

  • Postdoctoral, Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD
  • PhD, Epidemiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC
  • MSPH, Epidemiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC
  • BA, Comparative Literature and Society, Columbia University, Columbia College, New York, NY

Related Tags

Areas of Interest

  • Opioids
  • Medications for substance use disorders
  • Comparative effectiveness research
  • Healthcare claims databases
  • Electronic health records
  • Causal inference

Selected Publications

  • Seamans MJ, Mays VM, Arseniev-Koehler A, Cochran SD. Prevalence of prescription and illicit drugs in suicides by non-poisoning means in the National Violent Death Reporting System 2003-2017. Am J Drug Alcohol Abuse. 2022 Jul 4;48(4):464-470.
  • Seamans MJ, Hong H, Ackerman B, Schmid I, Stuart EA. Generalizability of subgroup effects. Epidemiology. 2021 May 1;32(3):389-392.
  • Seamans MJ, Carey TS, Westreich DJ, Cole SR, Wheeler SB, Alexander GC, Pate V, Brookhart MA. Association of household opioid availability and prescription opioid initiation among household members. JAMA Intern Med. 2018 Jan 1;178(1):102-109.
  • Seamans MJ, Robinson WR, Thorpe RJ Jr, Cole SR, LaVeist TA. Exploring racial differences in the obesity gender gap. Ann Epidemiol. 2015 Jun;25(6):420-5.
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