The Addiction Psychologist

Theories of addiction abound: various choice models and brain disease models, all trying to explain why people use substances in ways that appear to harm them. Theories are often pitted against one another. But does this always have to be the case? In this episode, Dr. David Epstein discusses problems that arise from theories using their own definitions for addiction, and ways in which considering various etiological pathways may help us better understand and treat the heterogenous presentations of addictive behavior. Dr. Epstein also enlightens us with a conversation about the association between substance use and boredom. Dr. David Epstein is the Chief of the Real-World Assessment, Prediction, and Treatment Section at the National Institute on Drug Abuse Intramural Research Program. Find out more about his work here.

Healthcare in the United States can be exceptional—that is, if you have enough resources. What if our systems worked to support people with fewer resources to get the help they needed? Dr. Ricky Bluthenthal discusses systemic barriers impeding access to harm reduction and just how much policy influences health outcomes. Dr. Ricky Bluthenthal is a Distinguished Professor and Chair of of the Department of Population and Public Health Sciences, and the Flora L. Thornton Chair in Preventive Medicine, at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. Find out more about his work here.

GLP-1s have rapidly increased in popularity, Due to their seemingly remarkable ability to facilitate weight loss. These findings have led to increased interest in understanding whether GLP-1s might be useful for changing other behaviors, such as as substance use. In this episode, Dr. Joseph Schacht discusses the science behind GLP-1 medications and their potential as treatments for substance use disorders, including recent research, mechanisms, and future directions. Dr. Joseph Schacht is an Associate Professor and Co-Director of the Division of Addiction Science, Prevention, and Treatment in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Colorado Anschutz. Learn more about his work here.

In this episode of the Addiction Psychologist Podcast, Dr. Andrea King discusses her extensive research on subjective effects of alcohol and their implications for addiction. The conversation covers her journey in addiction research, the Chicago Social Drinking Project, and the importance of understanding individual differences in alcohol response. Dr. King is a Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience at the University of Chicago and the Director of the Clinical Addictions Research Laboratory. Learn more about her work here.

Chapters

01:07 - Dr. Andrea King's Journey in Addiction Research
09:52 - Understanding Subjective Effects of Alcohol
18:07 - The Chicago Social Drinking Project Overview
25:41 - Longitudinal Findings on Alcohol Sensitivity
35:30 - The Complexity of Alcohol Use and Recovery
49:21 - Future Directions in Alcohol Research
52:31 - Take Home Messages for Recovery and Practice

What would you do alone in a cage with nothing but cocaine? These are the precise experimental arrangements in animal models that served as the foundation for popular models framing addiction as a compulsive brain disease. Yet, follow up studies have demonstrated that, under conditions with alternatives or social connection, rats (and humans) respond differently. In her new book, What would you do alone in a cage with nothing but cocaine, the addiction philosopher Dr. Hanna Pickard artfully integrates philosophy and science to question some of our most prominent models basic assumptions, and offers a new paradigm that responds to the question that is central to the puzzle of addiction: Why do people continue to use drugs despite evident and severe costs that count profoundly against their own good? In this episode, we talk with Dr. Pickard about her new book and its implication for science and practice. Dr. Pickard is a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, jointly appointed in the Department of Philosophy and the Berman Institute of Bioethics and secondarily appointed in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, in addition to a Krieger-Eisenhower Professor, at Johns Hopkins University. Learn more about her work here. You can purchase her new book, which is released on January 6, 2026, here.