Date: Apr 26, 2019 1:00 PM in Eastern Time

Abstract: There are multiple effective interventions for alcohol and other substance use disorders, however, effect sizes versus control conditions tend to be small. For example, our work has found mindfulness-based interventions to be more efficacious and effective than “gold standard” treatments (cognitive behavioral treatment, 12-step approaches) in the treatment of substance use disorder with small effect sizes. The current presentation will discuss the development and dissemination of mindfulness-based interventions and recent attempts to identify which individuals are most likely to respond best to mindfulness-based interventions based on different phenotypic profiles. The presentation will also highlight similar research in the area of medications for alcohol use disorder and how methodological approaches can be used to phenotype individuals to pursue precision medicine hypotheses. Future directions that include rigorous tests of precision medicine hypotheses and adaptive designs will also be discussed.

Katie Witkiewitz is a Regents’ Professor of Psychology and Scientist at the Center on Alcoholism, Substance Abuse, and Addictions at the University of New Mexico. She has studied mindfulness-based interventions for substance use disorder since 2001. Dr. Witkiewitz also has expertise in quantitative methods and is interested in how the methodology can inform precision medicine for alcohol and other substance use disorders.

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