Dr Akhurst is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the National Drug & Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales. Her research interests primarily relate to the epidemiology of alcohol and other drug use and harms, with a focus on pharmaceutical opioids. Since 2015, she has worked across a range of projects examining injecting drug use, the effects of opioid use on cognition, opioid agonist treatment, and drug-related morbidity and mortality. Her PhD explored the relationships between pharmaceutical opioid use and cognitive harms in people with chronic pain (for example, problems with memory and experience of injuries).