Innovative mental health and resilience SOAR Study now enrolling participants in Southeast Ohio

On a warm, sunny September morning, a crowd of about 100 people gathered under a large white tent outside Holzer Medical Center – Jackson for a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the SOAR Study’s new mobile MRI unit.

The attendees came from just down the street in Jackson, the surrounding counties, and even as far away as Cleveland suburbs to celebrate this important milestone for the $20 million state-funded SOAR Study in Southeast Ohio.

“In Ohio, we are here to take decisive action. That’s why we’ve committed $20 million through the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services to the SOAR Study,” said Aimee Shadwick, director of RecoveryOhio. “This is a groundbreaking effort to dig deep into the roots of mental health issues.”

The statewide project seeks to identify the root causes of the ongoing epidemic of persistent emotional distress, suicide and drug overdose.

As part of the study, a large mobile MRI unit is now based at the campus of Holzer Medical Center – Jackson, 500 Burlington Road, Jackson, Ohio. The study is enrolling participants ages 12 and up, along with their family members, from Southeast Ohio, including Athens, Gallia, Meigs, Scioto and Jackson counties.

“Holzer has been providing health care in southeast Ohio for over 100 years, and we have a proud history of supporting research. With this collaboration with Ohio State, we offer a location for services as well as valuable resources for our friends, family and neighbors. The SOAR Study will provide data not only for our service area, but for the entire state to enhance health care of all communities,” said Rodney Stout, MD, chief executive officer at Holzer Health System.

What is the SOAR Study?

The State of Ohio Adversity and Resiliency (SOAR) Study features government, academia and the private sector working together in an unprecedented mental health research effort.

Inspired by the pioneering longitudinal Framingham Heart Study, this first-of-its kind study for mental health will examine the root causes of not only mental illness and addiction, but also resilience and mental wellness. Framingham launched in 1948 and the multigenerational heart study has enrolled more than 15,000 study participants over 75 years, resulting in major life-saving advancements about heart disease risk factors and prevention.

The SOAR Study approach allows for an integrated analysis of individual, family, group and community factors. By studying generations of families, investigators aim to identify patterns of intergenerational transmission of risk but even more importantly, resilience.

Having the ability to cope with tough times by applying inner strength and engaging support networks is known as resilience, and this can enable people to face difficult situations and maintain good mental health.

This can also allow families to “break the chain” of risk for mental illness, substance use and deaths related to persistent distress. This is completed with two parallel but connected projects: a wellness survey, which will assess the mental health of Ohioans, and a brain health study, including in-person visits with families in rural, suburban, and urban sites.

Melissa Plummer, a local citizen who shared her personal story of addiction and recovery during the ribbon-cutting ceremony, now works as a drug addiction counselor. But for years she struggled with substance use disorder.  

“I’m here to share that drug abuse and dependency is real, but can be overcome,” Plummer said. “With programs such as SOAR, we can potentially reduce the risk of drug abuse and suicide in our communities.”

How does the SOAR Study work?

Individuals above age 12 from any county in Southeast Ohio are welcome to participate in the study while the mobile MRI unit is in Jackson. SOAR is looking at social, psychological, and biological factors to identify which one affect risk and resilience within families. All Ohio residents from all walks of life are welcome to participate, including walk-in appointments Tuesday-Sundays (or call 614-405-0408).

“Our goal across the state of Ohio is to figure out what are those factors that we can impact that will really prevent mental illness and ensure resilience in our populations,” said Andrew Thomas, MD, chief clinical officer at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.

The SOAR Study has two parallel but connected projects:

• Focusing on breadth, the SOAR Wellness Discovery Survey will engage as many as 15,000 people across Ohio. Researchers want to uncover how strengths and skills may be related to overcoming adversity. Those strengths will inform researchers about which factors to focus on to develop new treatments. More than 300,000 postcards have been mailed to residents statewide, with 11,194 respondents or 75% completed.

• Focusing on depth, the SOAR Brain Health Study will comprehensively study as many as 3,600 Ohioans in family groups to examine the biological, psychological, and social factors that help explain that relationship, such as who does well with adversity, who does not, and why. Those discoveries, including brain images from the mobile MRI unit, will help researchers develop personalized treatments.

“We’re standing in the shadow of the state-of-the-art MRI trailer. We’re trying to understand how individual people – the brains of folks – respond to stressors. We try to understand how their immune system responds to stressors. We look at how blood flow in the brain changes in response to losses and successes. We can use all of that to learn things that we don’t know yet to move toward resilience,” said Scott Langenecker, PhD, investigator with the SOAR Study, professor and Vice Chair of research in Ohio State’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health at Ohio State.

What’s next for the SOAR Study?

During the first phase of the study, Ohio State Wexner Medical Center worked with Avita Health System in Ontario, Ohio, to begin enrolling the first wave of almost 300 participants and moved to Jackson, Ohio with hopes of enrolling 300-400 people. The mobile MRI unit will remain in Jackson for about three months, before moving to another location in Northeast Ohio in late 2024.

Principal investigator K. Luan Phan in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Heath at The Ohio State Wexner Medical Center and College of Medicine leads the SOAR Study, in collaboration with the state of Ohio and several of Ohio’s public universities, leveraging expertise from Bowling Green State University, Case Western/University Hospital-Cleveland, Central State University, Kent State University, Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Northeast Ohio Medical University, Ohio University, University of Cincinnati/Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, University of Toledo, and Wright State University.

“Through the power of partnerships, collectively, we can better understand the factors that influence and affect mental illness that will have an impact on all Ohioans for generations to come. We can do more together to help Ohioans to lead healthier lives than we can do in isolation,” said Tracy Shaub, DO, dean of Heritage College, Ohio University Athens campus.

For more information or to register for the study, visit https://soarstudies.org/. To watch our recent ribbon cutting at the HMCJ facility, visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zp4czpkh2_8

If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, call or text the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988.