About

Eric Jackson is an Assistant Professor of Practice in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Arizona. He is a 'full stack' linguist with experience spanning from phonetics to semantics, including fieldwork, language documentation, and language technology. His academic background includes undergraduate studies in physics and linguistics at the University of Arizona, followed by graduate study in linguistics at UCLA, where he completed a PhD in 2005. Since then, he has worked in southern China and Southeast Asia in community-based applied linguistics for SIL, an international language development NGO. His work involved cooperative projects with government agencies, minority language communities, and curriculum development, including teaching in a joint Masters program in Kunming. Currently, he teaches in the Masters in Human Language Technology program, focusing on equipping students with computational tools for natural language applications, especially for low-resource language communities. His research interests include bringing natural language processing tools to low-resource languages, documenting threatened languages, and training community members in language documentation. He also studies lexical semantics of verbs, argument and event structure, serial verb constructions in Zhuang, and employs novel computational tools to aid dialectology, particularly in Tai languages of China.

Research topics

• Medicine
• Internal medicine
• Anesthesia
• Surgery
• Psychiatry
• Intensive care medicine
• Pharmacology
• Physical therapy

Selected publications

• Tianeptine, an Antidepressant with Opioid Agonist Effects: Pharmacology and Abuse Potential, a Narrative Review

  Pain and Therapy · 2023 · 30 citations

  • Medicine
  • Psychiatry
  • Pharmacology

  Tianeptine is an antidepressant drug approved for the treatment of major depressive disorder in countries other than the US. It is classified as an atypical tricyclic antidepressant and has shown potential benefits in addressing anxiety and irritable bowel disease. However, it is important to note that tianeptine is not approved for any use by the United States Federal Drug Administration (FDA). Despite its lack of approval by the FDA, tianeptine has been distributed online and at small retail locations. The term "gas station drugs" refers to a wide range of substances typically available for purchase from gas stations, corner stores, bodegas, mini marts, smoke shops, and the Internet. These substances may be produced commercially by drug manufacturers or in clandestine laboratories to mimic the effects of more well-known illicit/controlled substances such as marijuana, cocaine, opioids, etc. Tianeptine has made its way to convenience stores and gas station shelves, branded as "Zaza" and "Tianna Red." It can also be obtained online from independent vendors without a prescription. Misuse of tianeptine can lead to euphoric, opioid-like highs with the potential for chronic users to develop dependence and tolerance. Overdose and use in suicide attempts have also been documented. This manuscript is a narrative review, highlighting the dangers of tianeptine and other gas station drugs and underscoring the urgent need to regulate these substances.

  DOI

• New Synthetic Opioids: Clinical Considerations and Dangers

  Pain and Therapy · 2023 · 50 citations

  • Medicine
  • Anesthesia
  • Intensive care medicine

  Since the early 2010s, synthetic opioids have significantly contributed to overall opioid-related overdose mortalities. For point of reference, of the 68,630 opioid-related deaths recorded in 2020, 56,516 involved synthetic opioids. During much of this period, fentanyl has been the most commonly used synthetic opioid. This time when fentanyl was the most popular opioid has been called the "third wave" of the opioid crisis, partly because it led to a sharp rise in deaths from overdoses. Other synthetic opioids, such as carfentanil, protonitazene, and isotonitazene, have also become more widely diverted for nonmedical used. Carfentanil is an even more potent fentanyl derivative that was initially used in the mid-1980s as a general anesthetic for large animals such as elephants. Related to its strong affinity for mu opioid receptors, carfentanil is still utilized in medicine and science today as a radiotracer for positron emission tomography imaging. Protonitazene and isotonitazene belong to a novel class of synthetic opioids called benzimidazoles that were manufactured in the 1950s as novel analgesics. These agents have come under recent scrutiny as designer synthetic opioids becoming more prevalent. However, to date, there is incomplete data regarding the prevalence of synthetic opioids, as traditional toxicology screenings may not be sensitive to detect these compounds at such low doses post-mortem, particularly when blood is drawn from the periphery instead of central tissues such as the brain, lung, or heart. This narrative review aims to highlight the clinical challenges presented by these new synthetic opioids.

  DOI

• The Emerging Role of Ketamine in Acute Postoperative Pain Management

  Current Pain and Headache Reports · 2023 · 10 citations

  • Medicine
  • Anesthesia
  • Surgery
  DOI

Frequent coauthors

• Amber N. Edinoff

  McLean Hospital

  18 shared

• Adam M. Kaye

  Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center Shreveport

  9 shared

• Alan D. Kaye

  Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center Shreveport

  9 shared

• Elyse M. Cornett

  Louisiana State University in Shreveport

  9 shared

• Danielle M. Wenger

  University of Arizona

  8 shared

• Kevin S. Murnane

  Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center Shreveport

  6 shared

• Saveen Sall

  Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center Shreveport

  5 shared

• Wallace L. Mealiea

  University of Florida

  4 shared

Similar researchers at University of Arizona

• Jean-Luc Brédash-175
• Jeremy Garciah-129
• Noam Chomskyh-123
• Katia Cunhah-115
• Lisa M Rimszah-99