Projects per year
Personal profile
Research interests
Dr. Aleksandra Zgierska is a physician-scientist whose research, educational and advocacy work is rooted in her clinical practice. Board-certified in family medicine and addiction medicine, and with extensive experience in caring for adults with chronic pain, her studies have focused on improving health outcomes in addiction, pain and other impactful conditions, spanning diverse methodologies, including multi-center, mixed-methods randomized controlled trials, health services research, system-wide quality improvement initiatives, stakeholder engagement and community-based implementation projects.
Dr. Zgierska has studied mindfulness meditation-based interventions that suggested meditation as a promising therapy for addiction and opioid-treated chronic pain, leading to a current five-year multi-center randomized controlled trial assessing the effectiveness of meditation and cognitive behavioral therapy among adults with opioid-treated chronic low back pain.
Currently, she is developing protocols, as a part of a multi-center team, for increasing engagement in research among pregnant women who use drugs, laying the foundation for a future birth cohort study aimed at separating the impact on child development of in utero exposure to drugs, especially opioids, from that of adverse childhood experiences and other factors.
She leads the evaluation of a federally funded, citywide initiative that offers pre-arrest diversion from criminal justice to addiction treatment for adults who committed a minor drug-use-related crime.
Her research suggesting that the implementation of patient satisfaction ratings may unintentionally promote inappropriate opioid prescribing contributed to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services decision to remove "pain questions" from the scoring formula used in the Hospital Value-Based Purchasing Program.
Dr. Zgierska is associate director for pain studies in Penn State Addiction Center for Translation and co-director of Penn State Health's pain and wellness program.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Zgierska received the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences and Social Science Research Institute award to identify and address the impact of the pandemic on pregnant women and new mothers. Jointly with colleagues, she has been involved in several projects funded to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on patients and communities.
Clinical interests
Dr. Aleksandra Zgierska has a special interest in pain management. She provides primary care to children and adults and specialty care to patients with chronic pain and addiction.
Professional information
Board-certified in family medicine, American Board of Family Medicine
Board-certified in addiction medicine, American Board of Preventive Medicine/American Board of Addiction Medicine
Member, American Academy of Family Physicians
Member, American Academy of Pain Medicine
Member and Distinguished Fellow, American Society of Addiction Medicine
Member, North American Primary Care Research Group
Member, Physicians for Social Responsibility
Member, Institute for Computational and Data Sciences - Center for Artificial Intelligence Foundations and Scientific Applications (CENSAI)
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
Education/Academic qualification
Clinical Research, Fellowship (NIH/NIAAA), University of Wisconsin - Madison
2006 → 2008
Family Medicine, Residency, University of Wisconsin - Madison
2002 → 2006
Internal Medicine, PhD, National Institute of Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases
1996 → 1999
Internship, Medical University of Warsaw, University Clinical Center, Central Clinical Hospital
1995 → 1996
MD, Medical University of Warsaw
… → 1995
External positions
Secretary, American Society of Addiction Medicine
2021 → …
Co-Chair, Substance Use Disorder Special Interest Group, American Academy Pain Medicine
Vice Chair, Chapters' Council, Ex Officio Member of the Board of Directors and Public Policy Committee Member, American Society of Addiction Medicine
Trainer, Buprenorphine Waiver Training, American Society of Addiction Medicine
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Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
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Managing Long-Term Low Back Pain to Improve Health and Reduce Reliance on Opioid Medicines: Comparing Mindfulness Meditation and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy -- Strategies To Assist with Management of Pain (STAMP)
Barrett, B. & Zgierska, A.
Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute
1/1/16 → 3/31/24
Project: Research project
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1/3 Promoting Resilience in Children: Protocol Development for a Birth Cohort Study To Assess Factors Impacting Neurodevelopment
Goldstein, E. & Zgierska, A.
NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON DRUG ABUSE
9/30/19 → 3/31/21
Project: Research project
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Mindfulness Meditation for Alcohol Relapse Prevention
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
4/10/09 → 3/31/15
Project: Research project
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Latent class analysis of health, social, and behavioral profiles associated with psychological distress among pregnant and postpartum women during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States
Goldstein, E., Brown, R. L., Lennon, R. P. & Zgierska, A. E., Jun 2023, In: Birth. 50, 2, p. 407-417 11 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open Access3 Scopus citations -
Promoting research engagement among women with addiction: Impact of recovery peer support in a pilot randomized mixed-methods study
Zgierska, A. E., Hilliard, F., Deegan, S., Turnquist, A. & Goldstein, E., Jul 2023, In: Contemporary Clinical Trials. 130, 107235.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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To be aware, or to accept, that is the question: Differential roles of awareness of automaticity and pain acceptance in opioid misuse
Parisi, A., Zgierska, A. E., Burzinski, C. A., Lennon, R. P., Jamison, R. N., Nakamura, Y., Barrett, B., Edwards, R. R. & Garland, E. L., Jun 1 2023, In: Drug and alcohol dependence. 247, 109890.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Voices of Women With Lived Experience of Substance Use During Pregnancy: A Qualitative Study of Motivators and Barriers to Recruitment and Retention in Research
Hilliard, F., Goldstein, E., Nervik, K., Croes, K., Ossorio, P. N. & Zgierska, A. E., Jan 1 2023, In: Family and Community Health. 46, 1, p. 1-12 12 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open Access4 Scopus citations -
Adjunctive osteopathic therapy for hospitalized COVID-19 patients: A feasibility-oriented chart review study with matched controls
Lennon, R. P., Dong, H., Zgierska, A. E., Demetriou, T., Croad, J., Livelsberger, C., Hodge, L., Mendez-Miller, M., Darby, A. & Rabago, D., Jun 2022, In: International Journal of Osteopathic Medicine. 44, p. 3-8 6 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open Access1 Scopus citations