Summer Stories 2024

Vermont’s Dual Reality: Serene Escape and the Face of the Opioid Crisis

Reflections on my summer of research and its unexpected deep-rooted connections to my life outside the lab.
Elena Elizabeth Diaz Aug 14, 2024

Midway through my summer research period, I had the chance to travel to my grandparents’ house in Vermont for Independence Day weekend. I hopped on a bus out of Boston’s South Station and headed north. Towering buildings were replaced by gorgeous old pine trees and the bustling of city traffic quickly dwindled down to a few cars on the open highway. When I finally arrived, I was greeted by warm hugs, my grandparents’ sweet dog Penny, and a nice cup of hot chocolate. The trip continued just as lovely as it began, making for an idyllic weekend: we went on long bike rides along the Connecticut River, spent hours swimming and kayaking in the lake beside the house, and enjoyed the spectacular display of fireworks that exploded across the sky to celebrate July 4th.  

As a kid who grew up moving every two or three years, coming to the lakeside house each summer was one of my few constants. The little slice of paradise was a place to center myself: to enjoy the beauty of nature and reconnect with family. Despite only being there for mere days each year, it is the place I like to call home. Yet the perfect, peaceful picture in my head is a stark contrast to the reality I uncovered in my research. 

Taking a step back for a moment, I’ve spent the last few months studying the effects of fetal opioid exposure on gene expression and behaviour as my Laidlaw project. The beginning of this century has seen dramatically increasing rates of opioid misuse - a trend consistent amongst pregnant women1. This phenomenon has consequences for both mother and child. Women who use opioids during pregnancy experience higher rates of miscarriage2, and more babies are being born with neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome (NOWS)1, a condition that encompasses a range of neurological and gastrointestinal symptoms presenting shortly after birth3. Beyond this, exposure to these drugs in-utero can have lasting effects throughout the lives of offspring, for example increasing their likelihood of having attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)4 and even having a higher propensity for opioid addiction themselves3. 

These lessons are sobering on their own, but there was one figure that lent a whole new sense of gravity to the statistics for me: as of 2014, my much beloved state of Vermont has the highest rate of babies born with NOWS in the United States, with 48.6 affected babies per every 1000 live births1. That is nearly 5%. Shocked, I decided to dig deeper. I found that Essex County, where my grandparents live, has the highest percentage of households living below the poverty line in the state, at 14.7% in 20215. What’s more, only 20.2% of people in the area have attained at least a bachelor’s degree6. With lack of education and socioeconomic status being important factors fueling the opioid epidemic7, it was then not a shock when I learned that Essex County has the highest rate of opioid-related deaths in the state8. These statistics hurt. How could the place I love so dearly also be at the forefront of the opioid crisis and I be so blind to the problem? My disbelief turned to sadness and then embarrassment at my naïveté. 

Going back to my experience this summer, leaving Vermont after the 4th of July weekend was not as difficult as it usually is. Perhaps that is because I can say that I wholeheartedly loved the research experience and the lab I was going back to. From quiet hours spent at the lab bench preparing buffers and samples for PCR, to journal club lunches spent discussing interesting scientific papers, I adored it. Thanks to an incredible team, I got to do more than I thought possible in six weeks: I extracted mRNA, synthesized cDNA, did PCR, and learned how to do precision brain punching in over 100 brains stemming from rats  ranging from a day old to fully grown adults. I even assisted in surgery for a concurrent project being conducted by a lab colleague by helping administer anesthesia. Moreover, I met and worked with some phenomenal people – people who are so knowledgeable and have such an infectious excitement for their research that I couldn’t help but feel inspired. 

The experience was fulfilling, to say the least.  In and of itself, it was special, but a whole new sense of gratification came from the knowledge that the research I’ve been doing could have an impact on the very communities I inhabit and love so dearly. I am fully aware that the contribution I made in just six weeks is a mere dent in tackling the complex monster that is the opioid crisis and addiction, yet I am very happy just to be making that dent.  

These reflections on the unexpected but deep-rooted connections between my research topic and my personal life bring me right back to why I applied to the Laidlaw program in the first place: the chance to bridge academia and social action, to use my education for good. After all, the global dilemmas we face are often far closer to home than we realize. 

Bibliography 

  1.    Haight SC, Ko JY, Tong VT, Bohm MK, Callaghan WM. Opioid Use Disorder Documented at Delivery Hospitalization — United States, 1999–2014. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report [Internet]. 2018 Aug 10;67(31):845–9. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/67/wr/mm6731a1.htm?s_cmm6731a1_w
  2.    Myers AM, Wallin CM, Richardson LM, Duran J, Neole SR, Kulaglic N, et al. The Effects of Buprenorphine and Morphine During Pregnancy: Impact of Exposure Length on Maternal Brain, Behaviour, and Offspring Neurodevelopment. Neuropharmacology [Internet]. 2024 Oct 1;257. Available from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0028390824002296?via%3Dihub
  3.    Yen E, Davis JM. The immediate and long-term effects of prenatal opioid exposure. Frontiers in Pediatrics [Internet]. 2022 Nov 6;10. Available from: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/pediatrics/articles/10.3389/fped.2022.1039055/full
  4.    Schlagal CR, Dunn TJ, Xu P, Felsing DE, Merritt CR, Sanjana Manja, et al. Maternal Opioid Exposure Culminates in Perturbed Murine Neurodevelopment and Hyperactive Phenotype in Adolescence. Neuroscience [Internet]. 2021 May 21 [cited 2023 Nov 25];463:272–87. Available from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306452221001482
  5.    Stebbins S. This Is the County With the Highest Poverty Rate in Vermont [Internet]. The Center Square. 2023 [cited 2024 Aug 14]. Available from: https://www.thecentersquare.com/vermont/article_69376bc4-2108-521e-b611-75f692eb6cf5.html
  6.    U.S. Census Bureau. Educational Attainment, American Community Survey, ACS 5-Year Estimates Subject Tables, Table S1501. 2022. Available from: https://data.census.gov/table/ACSST5Y2022.S1501?g=050XX00US50009
  7.    Judd D, King CR, Galke C. The Opioid Epidemic: A Review of the Contributing Factors, Negative Consequences, and Best Practices. Cureus [Internet]. 2023 Jul 10;15(7). Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10410480/
  8.     Elder-Connors L. Fatal Opioid Overdoses in Vermont Continue to Trend up [Internet]. Vermont Public. Vermont Public; 2023. Available from: https://www.vermontpublic.org/local-news/2023-07-31/fatal-opioid-overdoses-in-vermont-continue-to-trend-up