Sharon Levy, MD, MPH, Boston Children’s Hospitals, Chief, Division of Addiction Medicine, was promoted to Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. Roger Weiss, MD, Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and Chief of the Division of Alcohol, Drugs, and Addiction at McLean Hospital received the Founders Award from the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry. Gail D’Onofrio, MD, MS, Albert E. Kent Professor of Emergency Medicine, Professor of Medicine and Public Health, Yale University was elected to the National Academy of Medicine. CTN-0131 The NECN, the Lead Node of CTN-0131, hosted the Methadone Clinician Education and Support Training,held on 10/2, in Fitkin Auditorium on the campus of Yale School of Medicine. Physicians, Nurse Practitioners, Physician’s Assistants, and pharmacists represented all 6 participating sites. Presenters included: David Fiellin, MD, Study Lead Investigator; Zoe Weinstein, MD, MS, Study Co-Investigator; Jef Bratberg, PharmD; Ayana Jordan, MD, PhD, Study Co-Investigator; David Frank, PhD; Brandy Robinson; Jeanette Tetrault, MD, Study Co-Investigator; and Richard Schottenfeld, MD, Study Co-Investigator The CTN-0131 National Training took place via webinar 10/12-10/13. Publication Levy S, Minegishi M, Brogna M, Subramaniam G, McCormack J, Weiss R, Weitzman ER. Comparing the Performance of WMH-CIDI-SAM in Adolescents to Diagnoses Made by Pediatric Addiction Medicine Specialists. Journal of Addiction Medicine, in press. See also, our latest Node Newsletter.

Gwen Lapham, PhD, MPH, MSW, recently published Prevalence of Cannabis Use Disorder and Reasons for Use Among Adults in a US State Where Recreational Cannabis Use Is Legal, in JAMA Network Open. Dr. Lapham led the CTN-0077 study and is a PROUD (CTN-0074) co-investigator and Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute (KPWHRI) assistant investigator and addictions health services researcher.  She is also an assistant affiliate professor in the Department of Health Systems and Population Health, University of Washington, and assistant professor in the Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine. Since joining KPWHRI, she has capitalized on her prior social work and health services training to do impactful research on evidence-based primary care for unhealthy substance use, including alcohol, cannabis, and opioids. She has recently begun making strides in understanding cannabis use among primary care patients, including medical use and use among prenatal women. Kelly Young-Wolff, PhD, MPH was recently selected to be a member of the NASEM Committee to Review the Public Health Consequences of Changes in the Cannabis Policy Landscape. Dr. Young-Wolff is leading CTN-0140 and is a licensed clinical psychologist and research scientist at the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research. She is also an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco; Consulting Assistant Professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine; and Professor, Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine. Dr. Young-Wolff’s research focuses on substance use, focusing specifically on cannabis use among pregnant persons and adolescents and on the impact of changes…

(pictured above: John Rotrosen, Ned Nunes, and Jennifer McNeely, leadership of the NY Node) The NYU Grossman School of Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry had retirement party on October 4th celebrating John Rotrosen MD and his remarkable career! John joined NYU in 1968 as a medical student, stayed on through a research residency in psychiatry, and since, as faculty, most of that time overseeing clinical and research programs at Bellevue Hospital and the VA, with generous research funding mostly from the NIH and the VA.  A highlight of all of those years has been his team’s association with NIDA’s CTN since its inception in 2000, and especially since 2010 with the merger of two nodes, the first funded through NYU and the second, funded through RFMH/Columbia, into the current New York Node co-led by him and Ned Nunes as multiple-PIs.  As of July 1, Jennifer McNeely, MD, MS, Associate Professor in the departments of Population Health and Medicine at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine has assumed John’s role as contact PI at NYU. (pictured above: Dr. Rotrosen literally handing the baton to Dr. McNeely!) Posted October 13, 2023

The Learning for Early Careers in Addiction and Diversity (LEAD) program, a NIDA-funded science education program focused on addictions research training is recruiting a new cohort of scholars. The program trains early career substance use disorder researchers from racial/ethnic minoritized groups that are underrepresented as NIH funded investigators. The program announcement includes eligibility criteria and instructions about how to submit an application for consideration. Find the application here. The requirements are on the application, which include the following: Posted October 13, 2023

Andrew Saxon, MD (VA Puget Sound, UW Dept of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences), and Joseph Merrill, MD (UW Medicine), both long-time members of the CTN’s Pacific Northwest Node, were recently included in Seattle Met Magazine’s “Top Docs of 2023” feature (both in the category of Addiction Medicine). Congratulations, Drs. Saxon and Merrill, and thank you for your continued support of the CTN and the Pacific Northwest Node! Posted October 12, 2023