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Changing outcomes, saving lives through work on opioid, stimulant, cannabis, and alcohol use disorders
View Our Investigators
View our specialized Research Programs and Investigators
Partnerships with four healthcare systems, two pharmacy networks, and six addiction specialty/ infectious disease programs
Our investigators have created a personally-tailored learning tool to increase knowledge about opioid overdose
As a national leader in addiction research, the UC Addiction Center | Research includes investigators working on opioid, stimulant, cannabis, and alcohol use disorders.
Our investigators are known as leaders in addiction research for their work on multi-center cooperative research programs including the Ohio Valley Node of the National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network and the Healing Communities Study. The UCAC encourages collaborations that are cross-disciplinary and span the translational science spectrum to accelerate scientific progress.
The University of Cincinnati offers a number of research resources, with their Core Facilities.
Dr. T. John Winhusen is a Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Cincinnati where he serves as the Vice Chair for Addiction Sciences and the Donald C. Harrison Endowed Chair in Medicine. Dr. Winhusen has conducted National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)-funded research for the past 20 years devoted to improving the treatment of substance use disorders including cocaine, tobacco, and opioid use disorders. He is the PI for the Ohio Valley Node of NIDA’s Clinical Trials Network (CTN) and is one of the foremost experts in conducting multi-site addiction clinical trials, having been the national PI for six NIDA CTN-funded multi-site clinical trials. He is currently serving as the Co-PI for the Ohio Healing Communities Study (HCS), which will evaluate the impact of implementing evidence-based interventions on opioid overdose deaths in 19 Ohio counties.
From left to right: Dr. Stephanie Merhar, Perinatal Addiction/Developmental Consequences core lead, Dr. Andrew Norman, Addiction Treatment Development and Testing core lead, Dr. Shauna Acquavita and Dr. Caroline Freiermuth, Population Health and Health Services core co-leaders, and Dr. T. John Winhusen, UCAC Director.
To be an international leader in research to prevent addiction and addiction-related consequences and to improve outcomes for individuals struggling with addiction, their families, and their communities.
To accelerate scientific progress in the prevention and treatment of substance use disorders and their consequences by fostering research collaborations across:
Research includes three concentrations (cores):
The mission of the Addiction Treatment development and Testing (ATT) Core is to develop and test interventions to address gaps in evidence-based treatment and to optimize outcomes for individuals struggling with addiction.The mission of the Perinatal Addiction/Developmental-consequences (PAD) Core includes evaluating risk factors for the development of adverse developmental and behavioral outcomes in children with intrauterine substance exposure and identifying optimal approaches to treating: a) pregnant women with substance use disorder; and b) newborns with intrauterine substance exposure. The mission of the Population Health and Health Services (PHHS) Core is to conduct the research necessary to place addiction in context, prevent the condition when possible, and limit the consequences of addiction when it does occur. Core investigators multidisciplinary and highly synergistic interests range from surveillance and epidemiology, primary and secondary prevention intervention, operations and implementation, and outcomes assessment. These categories apply both to addiction itself and related co-morbidities.
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