Departmental Affiliations
Johannes Thrul, PhD, MS, uses mobile health technology to understand and treat substance use disorders.
Research Interests
substance use; cannabis; tobacco; alcohol; digital well-being; mHealth; social media; ecological momentary assessment
Experiences & Accomplishments
The focus of my work is mobile health (mHealth) research to study substance use, mental health, and digital well-being. I am also using technology, including smartphones and social media, to develop, test, and deliver interventions to prevent and treat substance use and mental health disorders.
Honors & Awards
2022 Golden Apple Award for Offsite/Internet Class by the Student Association of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Course “Digital and Mobile Health Research in Public Mental Health”
2021 Excellence in Teaching Award, Course “Digital and Mobile Health Research in Public Mental Health”, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
2020 Excellence in Teaching Award, Course “The Epidemiology of Substance Use and Related Problems”, Co-instructor with Renee Johnson, PhD, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
2020 Excellence in Teaching Award, Summer Institute “Mobile Mental Health Research: Planning and Conducting Ecological Momentary Assessment”, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
2020 Mentoring & Teaching Recognition Award (AMTRA) for Outstanding Service by the Student Association of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
2020 Participant, Yale Innovation to Impact, Entrepreneurship training program for substance use researchers
2019 Excellence in Teaching Award, Summer Institute “Mobile Mental Health Research: Planning and Conducting Ecological Momentary Assessment”, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
2018 Participant, NCI-CRUK Sandpit Workshop “Implementing Digital Health Interventions for Cancer Prevention”, Potomac, MD
2017 Travel award, College on Problems of Drug Dependence (CPDD)
2016 Travel award, Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco – Europe (SRNT-E)
2015 Participant, NIH mHealth Training Institute, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
2015 Travel award, Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco (SRNT)
2013 Travel award, European Graduate School in Addiction Research
2012 Travel award, German Academic Exchange Service
2008 – 2009 Fulbright Fellowship, German-American Fulbright Commission
Select Publications
Selected publications
AlJuboori, D., Clary, L.K., Alomairah, S.A., Colder Carras, M., Saquib, N., Saquib, N., Albeyahi, F., Van Rooij, A.J., Tuijnman, A., Van Der Rijst, V.G., Kaufman, M., Thrul, J. (2025). Contextual adaptation of digital wellbeing interventions for young people: Insights from a project in Saudi Arabia. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 15, 1455962.
Thrul, J. & Vandrey, R.G. (2024). The Cannabis and Health Research Initiative will help integrate medicinal cannabis in healthcare. Nature Medicine, 30(12), 3394-3395.
Mun, C.J., Nordeck, C.D., Anderson Goodell, E.M., Vandrey, R., Zipunnikov, V., Dunn, K.E., Finan, P.H., & Thrul, J. (2022). Real-time monitoring of cannabis and prescription opioid co-use patterns, analgesic effectiveness, and the opioid-sparing effect of cannabis in individuals with chronic pain. Journal of Pain, 23(11), 1799-1810.
Nordeck, C.D., Riehm, K.E., Smail, E.J., Holingue, C., Kane, J., Johnson, R.M., Veldhuis, C.B., Kalb, L.G., Stuart, E.A., & Thrul, J. (2022). Changes in drinking days among US adults during the COVID-19 pandemic. Addiction, 117(2), 331-340.
Thrul, J., Gubner, N.R., Nguyen, N., Nguyen, C., Goodell, E.A., Holmes, L.M., Vandrey, R.G., & Ling, P.M. (2021). Perceived reward from using cigarettes with alcohol or cannabis and concurrent use: A smartphone-based daily diary study. Addictive Behaviors, 114, 106747.