Stephanie D. Nichols, Pharm.D., MPH, BCPP, FCCP
Associate Professor of Pharmacy Practice, School of Pharmacy, UNE
Psychiatry and Substance Use Disorder Faculty, Maine Medical Center
Location
Stephanie Nichols (she/her), PharmD, MPH, BCPS, BCPP, FCCP is an Associate Professor of Pharmacy Practice in the University of New England School of Pharmacy, Adjunct Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry in the Tufts University School of Medicine, core faculty for the MMC/Veteran Affairs Addiction Medicine Fellowship, and instructor for the Maine Medical Center Psychiatric Physician Residency Program.
Dr. Nichols earned her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University at Buffalo and completed an Inpatient Pharmacy Practice Residency at Maine Medical Center. She earned her Master of Public Health degree from the University of New England. She is a Board Certified Psychiatric Pharmacist (BCPP) and a Fellow of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy (FCCP).
At Maine Medical Center, Dr. Nichols and her students are involved in providing direct patient care to patients with mental illness and substance use disorders, responding to psychopharmacotherapy consults, educating patients and healthcare professionals, and participating in population health endeavors including co-development of order-sets, policies, and procedures
Dr. Nichols is extremely passionate about interprofessional care, education, and research, and about reducing stigma around mental illness and SUDs. Research interests follow.
1) Developing programs and evaluating their ability to optimize the treatment of people with SUDs, prevent development of SUD, particularly in patients with mental illness and/or trauma, and prevent and mitigate medication-related medical problems and adverse effects.
2) Studying epidemiology of substance use, people with SUDs and related morbidity and mortality, medical and non-prescribed substance use, and psychotropic polypharmacy
3) Prospective investigational research about psychotropic medications and/or the interface between medical and psychiatric co-morbidities and associated medications, including drug-drug interactions, drug-disease interactions, and drug-induced diseases or disorders.
Dr. Nichols has co-authored publications in Pharmacotherapy, The Mental Health Clinician, Psychosomatics, Pain, PeerJ, PLOS One, American Journal of Health System Pharmacy, Journal of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy, Journal of Maine Medical Center, Pharmacology, Journal of Addiction Medicine, and Journal of Drug and Alcohol Dependence. She has spoken at national meetings of the American Association of Psychiatric Pharmacists (AAPP/CPNP), American College of Clinical Pharmacists (ACCP), American Pharmacy Association (APhA), and throughout Northern New England.
Dr. Nichols serves as a Senior Editor for the AAPP Psychiatric Review Book and on the Journal of Maine Medical Center Editorial Board. She also serves as an expert consultant for the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry SAMHSA-funded Opioid Response Network, and on the Maine Opioid Response Clinical Advisory Committee, Maine Prescription Monitoring Program Committee, Maine Medical Professionals Health Program, ACCP Fellowship Selection Committee, Co-Collaborative Serving Maine Board of Directors, Lunder Dineen Time to Ask Advisory Committee, and the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review's New England Comparative Effectiveness Public Advisory Committee. She includes her clinical students in these meetings and activities whenever possible.
Credentials
Education
Expertise
- Acute care
- Acute Pain
- Addiction
- Addiction education
- Addiction epidemiology
- Addiction medicine education
- Addiction treatment
- Adult mental health
- Adult mental health
- Clinical pharmacology
- Clinical psychiatry
- Mental health
- Mental Health
- Opioids
- Perinatal mental health
- Pharmacotherapy
- Psychiatric drug pharmacology
- Psychiatric drug toxicology
- Psychiatric drugs
- Substance abuse
- Substance use
- Substance use disorder
Clinical Affiliations
Core Faculty, MMC/VA ACGME-accredited Addiction Medicine Fellowship
Instructor, MMC ACGME-accredited Psychiatry Residency Program
Board Certifications and Licenses
Board Certified Psychiatric Pharmacist (BCPP)
Maine Licensed Pharmacist with Medication Administration Credentialing
Post-Doctoral Training
Certificate, Effective Teaching Practices (Course 50-hours over 25 weeks), Association of College and University Educators, 2017 - 2018
Certificate, Public Health in the Opioid Crisis Leadership Development Program, Maine Medical Association and Maine Quality Counts, 2017 - 2019
Certificate, Class of XIV, Hanley Health Leadership Development Program, 2020 - 2021
Research
Selected publications
Selected publications follow.
1. Hyde TF, Bekoe-Tabiri AD, Kropp-Lopez AK, Devia LG, Gutierrez BD, Lara MC, Soto AR, Kaufman DE, Moran MT, Simpson KJ, Shah DT, Foster M, Desrosiers C, Hebert J, Nichols SD, McCall KL, Piper BJ. County and Demographic Differences in Drug Arrests and Controlled Substance Use in Maine. JMMC. 2021;3(2). Link
2. Eidbo SA, Kropp Lopez AK, Hagedorn JD, et al. Declines and regional variation in opioid distribution by US hospitals. Pain. 2021;10.1097/j.pain.0000000000002473. PMID: 34510133
3. Centanni N, Craig W, Whitesell D, Zemrak Z, Nichols SD. Use and Safety of Anticoagulants in Patients Receiving Electroconvulsive Therapy. Ment Health Clin. 2021;11(4):254–258. PMID 34316422
4. Liu JT, Smith KE, Riker RR, Craig WY, McKelvy DJ, Kemp HD, Nichols SD, Fraser GL. Methadone bioavailability and dose conversion implications with intravenous and enteral administration: a scoping review. Am J Health-Syst Pharm. 2021;78(15):1395-1401. PMID 33872344
5. Boyle JM, McCall KL, Nichols SD, Piper BJ. Declines and Pronounced Regional Disparities in Meperidine Use in the United States. Pharmacol Res Perspect. 2021 Aug;9(4):e00809. doi: 10.1002/prp2.809. PMID: 34128348
6. Peckham AM, Ball J, Colvard MD, Dadiomov D, Hill LG, Nichols SD, Tallian K, Ventricelli DJ, Tran TH. Leveraging pharmacists to maintain and extend buprenorphine supply for opioid use disorder amid COVID-19 pandemic. Am J Health-Syst Pharm. 2021;78:xxx-xxx. PMID 33411894
7. Loskutova NY, Lutgen C, Smail C, Staton EW, Nichols SD, Pinckney RG. Stimulant Prescribing Error Assessment Rubric Development. J Patient Saf. 2020 Sep 8. doi: 10.1097/PTS.0000000000000775. PMID 32925567
8. Abrams B, Murray K, Mahoney K, Raymond K, McWilliams S, Nichols S, Mahmoudi E, Mayes L, Fernandez-Bustamante A, Mitchell J, Meguid R, Zanotti G, Bartels K. Post-discharge pain management after thoracic surgery – a patient centered approach. Ann Thorac Surg. 2020 Jun 1;S0003-4975(20)30780-3. PMID 32497643
9. Badowski ME, Wright E, Bainbridge J, Michienzi S, Nichols SD, Turner K, Wicke C, Awad J, Thompkins A, Martin R. ACCP White Paper: Implementation and evaluation of comprehensive medication management in telehealth practices. J Am Coll Clin Pharm. 2020;3:520–531. Link
10. Leung JG, Cusimano JM, Kemp M, Gannon JM, Milgrom O, Valcourt SC, Stoklosa JB, Olsufka W, Vickery PB, Nichols SD, Crouse EL, Paxos C, Johnson EK, Palmer BA. Addressing clozapine under-prescribing and barriers to initiation: A psychiatrist, advanced practice provider, and trainee survey. Int Clin Psychopharmacol. 2019;34(5):247-256. PMID 31107831
11. Wolfrum LA, Nordmeyer AS, Racine CW, Nichols SD. Loperamide-associated opioid use disorder and proposal of an alternative treatment with buprenorphine. J of Addict Med. 2019;13(3): 245-47. PMID 30379781
12. Piper BJ, Ogden CL, Simoyan OM, Chung DY, Caggiano JF, Nichols SD, McCall KL. Trends in use of prescription stimulants in the United States and Territories, 2006 to 2016. PLoS ONE. 2018;13(11):e0206100. PMID 30485268
13. Piper BJ, Shaw DT, Simoyan OM, McCall KM, Nichols SD. Trends in medical use of opioids in the United States: 2006 – 2016. Am J Preventative Med. 2018;54(5):652-660. PMID 29551331
14. Piper BJ, Desrociers C, McCall KL, Nichols SD. Illicit and prescription drug misuse as reported to the Maine Diversion Alert Program. Forensic Sci Int. 2018;285:65-71. PMID 29453006
15. Holt T, McCall KL, Cattabriga G, Tu C, Smalley EK, Nichols SD. Using controlled substance receipt patterns to predict prescription overdose death. Pharmacology. 2017;14;101(3- 4):140-147. PMID 29248915
16. Piper BJ, DeKeuster RM, Beals ML, Cobb C, Burchman CA, Perkinson L, Lynn ST, Nichols SD, Abess A. Substitution of medical cannabis for pharmaceutical agents for pain, anxiety, and sleep. Journal of Psychopharmacology. 2017;31(5):569–575. PMID 28372506
17. Piper BJ, Desrosiers CE, Fisher HC, McCall KL, Nichols SD. A new tool to tackle the opioid epidemic: description, utility and results from the Maine Diversion Alert Program. Pharmacotherapy. 2017;37(7):791-798. PMID 28543168
18. Nichols SD, Bulman M, Tisher A, Campbell J. A case of possible iatrogenic ketamine-induced mania in a patient being treated for post-operative pain. Psychosomatics. 2016;57(5):543-46. PMID 27614210
19. Nichols SD, Bishop J. Is the evidence compelling for using ketamine to treat resistant depression? Current Psychiatry. 2016;15(5):48-51. Link
20. McCall K, Nichols SD, Holt C, Ochs L, Cattabriga G, Tu C. Prescription Monitoring Program trends among individuals arrested in Maine for trafficking prescription drugs in 2014. Pharmacotherapy. 2016;36(6):585-9. PMID 27087386
Invited plenary presentation
1. Buprenorphine and Methadone in Transitions of Care, College of Psychiatric and Neurologic Pharmacists, Dallas, Texas, 2020 (emergency conversion to virtual teaching)
2. The Maine Pharmacist Provider Collaboration Task Force: Affecting Change in ME, American Pharmacy Association PharmTalk, Seattle, Washington, 2019
3. (upcoming) Mental Health Simulations in Psychiatric Education, College of Psychiatric and Neurologic Pharmacists, San Antonio, Texas, 2022