Stephanie currently works as a lecturer within the School of Psychology and is also studying towards a PhD. Her main research interests are based within the field of psychopharmacology: specifically, the effects of recreational drug use. Her doctoral research is looking at symptoms and aspects of psychosis in regular cannabis users. Prior to her appointment as a member of the teaching staff, Stephanie worked as a research assistant for the drugs research team here at the University of East London, on the Development and Infancy Study (DAISY), which investigates the psychological effects of prenatal exposure to MDMA and other recreational drugs on the postnatally developing infant.

Stephanie is involved in teaching, taking tutorials and assessment in relation to core and optional modules on the Extended Degree, BSc Psychology and MSc Psychology. As a doctoral student, Stephanie is involved in research design, participant recruitment, testing and data analysis. Stephanie will also continue to present research findings at national and international conferences, and in peer-reviewed journal articles.

• BSc PsychologyPsychology — Level-3 tutor
• Extended Degree in Psychology
• MSc Psychology

• PY0003: Becoming a Psychology undergraduate
• PY1103/7: Individuals, Development, Social Behaviour and Skills
• PY2104: Individual Differences and Developmental Psychology
• PY2111: Drugs and Behaviour
• PY3101: Research Projects

Peer-reviewed Journal Articles

1. Moore, D.G., Turner, J.T., Parrott, A.C., Goodwin, J.E., Fulton, S.E., Meeyong, M.O., et al. (2009). During pregnancy, recreational drug-using women stop taking ecstasy (3, 4-methylenedioxy-N-methylamphetamine) and reduce alcohol consumption but continue to smoke tobacco and cannabis: initial findings from the DAISY study. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 23(7), 745–758.

Oral Sessions

1. Lynch, S., Turner, J. T., Soar, K., & Dawkins, L. E. (2011). Psychotic-like traits, inhibitory control and decision-making in cannabis users. Oral Presentation at the BPS Psychobiological Conference.
2. Lynch, S., Turner, J. T., Soar, K., & Dawkins, L. E. (2010). Selective attention deficits in cannabis user. Oral presentation at the Drug Misuse Symposium, Oxford Brookes.
3. Lynch, S., Stone, A., & Attree, L (2010). Investigating psychology students’ engagement and achievement. Oral presentation at the UEL Teaching and Learning Conference, London.

Poster Sessions

1. Lynch, S., Turner, J. T., Soar, K., & Dawkins, L. E. (2010). Do regular cannabis use and positive schizotypal personality traits impact on normal latent inhibition functioning? Poster session presented at the Association for Psychopharmacology conference, Harrogate.
2. Lynch, S., Turner, J.T., Soar, K., & Dawkins, L.E. (2009). Paranoid thinking, schizotypal personality traits and cannabis use in relation to emotional decision-making. Poster session presented at the International College of Neuropsychopharmacology (CINP) conference, Edinburgh.

Poster Sessions

1. Lynch, S., Turner, J.J.D., Goodwin, J.E., Ribeiro, H., Moore, D.G., Braddick, F.M.B., … Parrott, A.C. (2007). MDMA (‘Ecstasy’) use during pregnancy: psychological changes in mothers from the prospective DAISY study. Poster session presented at the Association for Psychopharmacology conference, Harrogate.
2. Lynch, S., & Turner, J.J.D. (2006). Latent inhibition, Kamin blocking and cannabis. Poster session presented at the Association for Psychopharmacology conference, Oxford.

• Membership of the British Association of Psychopharmacology
• Membership of the Association for Psychological Science
• Membership of the British Psychological Society

Latent Inhibition, Kamin Blocking and Cannabis

Lynch, S., & Turner, J.J.D. (2006).

Introduction: There is growing evidence supporting a link between cannabis use and psychosis. No studies to date, however, have examined this correlation using the latent inhibition (LI) and Kamin blocking (KB) paradigms; objective tasks show to be sensitive to schizophrenia, schizotypy and psychosis.

Methods: This experiment tested the performance of 15 regular cannabis users against 15 non-cannabis users, using these associative learning tasks, taken from Serra et al. (2001). The hypothesis was that cannabis smokers may elicit a similar response bias to that found with schizophrenic patients. The short version of Raine’s (1995) SPQ was also administered.

Results: There was evidence of a trend for LI being abolished in pre-exposed cannabis users (p = 0.07), with this group taking less time to reach the learning criterion compared to non pre-exposed users and controls. In the KB task, cannabis users reached the learning criterion significantly faster (p = 0.05) than the controls in both Blocking (BL) and non-Blocking (NBL) conditions. However, performance of the cannabis user groups did not differ between conditions.

Discussion: The weak trend for LI abolition in cannabis users supports the data linking use of this drug to psychosis-like impairment. The lack of a KB effect is in line with suggestions that this task is comparatively less sensitive to more moderate psychic disturbance. These findings, in relatively small groups, suggest that the use of such objective tasks warrants further investigation.

MDMA (‘Ecstasy’) use during pregnancy: psychological changes in mothers from the prospective DAISY study

Lynch, S., Turner, J.J.D., Goodwin, J.E., Ribiero, H., Moore, D.G., Braddick, F.M.B., Toplis, A.S., Axelsson, E.L., Fulton, S., Oh Min, M., Singer, L.T., & Parrott, A.C.

Background and Aims: The Development and Infancy Study (DAISY) is focussed on the impact of MDMA and other recreational drug use during pregnancy on behavioural outcomes in mothers and their infants. Some key maternal outcomes to date are reported here.

Methods: 19 women who had used MDMA during pregnancy (MDMA group, mean age 30.3 years), and 60 who used other recreational substances but not MDMA during their pregnancy (non-MDMA, mean age 28.3 years) were assessed at 3 time points: during pregnancy, two weeks post-partum, and 4 months post-partum. At each stage drug use was noted and psychological functioning assessed using: Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI), a multidimensional coping inventory (COPE), Multidimensional Assessment of Perceived Social Support, Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (WASI) and Wechsler Test of Adult Reading (WTAR).

Results: For the COPE measure, MDMA users reported significantly greater use of mental disengagement, positive reinterpretation/growth and acceptance, but less use of religion. Two weeks postpartum MDMA users changed their coping mechanisms to the use of alcohol and other drugs, and to behavioural disengagement. During pregnancy and at 2 weeks post-partum, there were no differences on BSI scores, but at four months MDMA users had significantly higher levels of BSI somatization, anxiety and hostility. In the MDMA users, there were positive correlations between levels of MDMA use and depression, and the coping strategies of mental disengagement and restraint, during the first trimester of pregnancy (all p<0.02). At four months post-partum, MDMA use correlated positively with Global Severity Index, Somatization, Obsessive Compulsion and Hostility (all p< 0.04 or smaller); furthermore alcohol and drug use was the only coping mechanism that correlated with MDMA use (p< 0.03).

Conclusion: The present prospective data indicate a number of negative psychological changes in women who have used MDMA during pregnancy: both pre-partum and post-partum. These data highlight the need to further explore the effects of recreational drug use in pregnant women as young parents, and also the impact on their developing children. This is the first study to demonstrate that MDMA exposure during pregnancy may increase vulnerability to negative psychological states in mothers.

• DAISY: Development and Infancy Study
• Recreational Drugs Research
• Health Psychology Research Group