What Is a Substance Use Disorder and What Treatments Are Available?
Substance use disorders are complicated. This episode includes discussions on factors that contribute to substance use, research on treatments, how substance use impacts the brain, and how we can all help reduce the stigma around this topic by talking about it more openly. The episode features Dr. Doug Ziedonis, CEO of The University of New Mexico Health System, and Dr. Katie Witkiewitz, a clinical psychologist and Director of the UNM Center on Alcohol, Substance Use, and Addiction.
Resources for anyone interested in finding support for substance use:
- Find treatment near you
- A list of resources from CASAA
- Substance Use and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Helpline
Topics discussed with Dr. Doug Ziedonis:
- Adverse Childhood Experiences
- Social Determinants of Health
- Project Echo
- New Mexico Alcohol Research Center
- UNM College of Pharmacy Substance Use Research and Education Center
Topics discussed with Dr. Katie Witkiewitz:
About Our Guest(s)
Dr. Douglas Ziedonis, MD, MPH
Dr. Doug Ziedonis is the Chief Executive Officer of the UNM Health System and the Executive Vice President for UNM Health Sciences, as well as an experienced psychiatrist with a demonstrated history of working in substance use disorder treatment. Dr. Ziedonis is an internationally recognized physician-scientist with a strong academic research career, in which he has led teams and received over 118 grants with over 25 years of continuous National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other research funding, and 320+ publications and other scholarly works.
He has held positions with University of California San Diego, UCLA, UMass, Yale University, and Rutgers. A Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, Dr. Ziedonis received his B.S. at Davidson College (1981), his M.D. at Pennsylvania State University Medical School (1985), and served his internship at UCLA and West Los Angeles VA Medical Center (1985-86), General Psychiatry Resident at UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute (1986-89), Chief Residency at the UCLA Department of Psychiatry & Brentwood VA (1988-89), Addiction Psychiatry Fellowship at UCLA and Brentwood VA, and his MPH at Yale University Department of Epidemiology and Public Health.
Katie Witkiewitz, Ph.D.
Katie Witkiewitz is a distinguished professor in the UNM Department of Psychology and the Director of the Center on Alcohol, Substance Use and Addiction (CASAA). She received her Ph.D. from University of Washington in 2005. Her research centers on the examination and treatment of substance use disorder, with an emphasis on harm reduction, recovery processes and quantitative methodology. She also helps train clinicians in the delivery of mindfulness-based interventions for substance use disorders.
Hosted by UCAM’s Carly Bowling
Long-time listener, first-time podcaster, Carly Bowling, is a university communication representative in The University of New Mexico’s University Communication and Marketing team (UCAM). She is thrilled to help shed light on the outstanding research work being done at UNM, New Mexico’s only R1 university. In addition to producing IPNRS, she contributes stories and videos to the UNM Newsroom, the University’s official communications platform.
Bowling is a graduate of the Arizona State University Walter Cronkite School of Journalism (’19). Her background includes multimedia journalism, documentary filmmaking, photography and writing. She is passionate about science communication and making academic topics and research accessible and interesting to people from all backgrounds and she hopes you’ll consider subscribing to the show!