Katie Witkiewitz

Last updated

Katie Witkiewitz
Born
Alma mater SUNY Potsdam
University of Montana
University of Washington
OccupationPsychologist

Katie Witkiewitz is an American psychologist, Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Director of the Center on Alcoholism, Substance Abuse, & Addictions, and the Addictive Behaviors and Quantitative (ABQ) Research Lab. [1]

Contents

Witkiewitz has been recognized nationally and internationally for her research in the addictions field including harm reduction and mindfulness-based interventions. She is a fellow and past president for the American Psychological Association Division 50 Society of Addiction Psychology, [2] editor for the journal Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, and on the Board of Directors for the International Society for Biomedical Research on Alcoholism.

Education

Witkiewitz was born in Rochester, New York, grew up in North Rose, New York and attended North Rose-Wolcott Central School District. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from SUNY Potsdam in 1999, graduating Summa Cum Laude. She earned her MA in Clinical Psychology from the University of Montana in December 2000 with a thesis entitled "Applications of Cusp Catastrophe Models to the Relapse Process". She earned her PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Washington in June 2005 with a minor in Quantitative Psychology with a dissertation entitled: " Predicting Alcohol Relapse Using Nonlinear Dynamics and Growth Mixture Modeling" under the mentorship of G. Alan Marlatt.

Awards

Witkiewitz has received several notable awards for her research contributions and leadership such as the Outstanding Leadership in Addiction Psychology in 2017 from the Society of Addiction Psychology and Early Career Achievement Award from the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies. [3]

Notable contributions

Witkiewitz is considered a leading researcher and advocate for harm reduction treatment goals for alcohol interventions. Traditionally, sustained abstinence has been considered the sole marker of a successful substance use disorder intervention. However, Witkiewitz has demonstrated that reduced alcohol use levels (e.g., 6 drinks daily to 1 drink daily) can lead to substantial improvements in physical health (e.g., blood pressure, liver enzyme levels) and quality of life. [4] In some cases, improvements match the outcomes achieved for abstainers; in others, improvements exceed what has been achieved with abstainers as moderation goals tend to improve early treatment retention. [4] [5] [6] [7]

Witkiewitz has 4 cats, one of whom is known for relentless screaming behavior.

Selected books

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alcoholism</span> Problematic excessive alcohol consumption

Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol that results in significant mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word alcoholism, it is not a recognized diagnostic entity. Predominant diagnostic classifications are alcohol use disorder (DSM-5) or alcohol dependence (ICD-11); these are defined in their respective sources.

Drug rehabilitation is the process of medical or psychotherapeutic treatment for dependency on psychoactive substances such as alcohol, prescription drugs, and street drugs such as cannabis, cocaine, heroin or amphetamines. The general intent is to enable the patient to confront substance dependence, if present, and stop substance misuse to avoid the psychological, legal, financial, social, and physical consequences that can be caused.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alcohol dependence</span> Medical condition

Alcohol dependence is a previous psychiatric diagnosis in which an individual is physically or psychologically dependent upon alcohol.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Calcium carbimide</span> Chemical compound

Calcium carbimide, sold as the citrate salt under the trade name Temposil, is a disulfiram-like medication. Its effects are similar to the medication disulfiram (Antabuse) in that it interferes with the normal metabolism of alcohol by preventing the breakdown of the metabolic byproduct acetaldehyde. The result is that when alcohol is consumed by users of calcium carbimide, they experience severe reactions which include symptoms such as sweating, difficulty breathing, rapid heartbeat, rash, nausea and vomiting, and headache.

Gordon Alan Marlatt was a leading American-Canadian clinical psychologist in the field of addictive behaviors from the 1980s through the 2000s. He conducted pioneering research in harm reduction, brief interventions, and relapse prevention.

The modern disease theory of alcoholism states that problem drinking is sometimes caused by a disease of the brain, characterized by altered brain structure and function.

Project MATCH began in 1989 in the United States and was sponsored by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). MATCH is an initialism for Matching Alcoholism Treatments to Client Heterogeneity. The project was an 8-year, multi site, $27-million investigation that studied which types of alcoholics respond best to which forms of treatment. MATCH studied whether treatment should be uniform or assigned to patients based on specific needs and characteristics. The programs were administered by psychotherapists and, although twelve-step methods were incorporated into the therapy, actual Alcoholics Anonymous meetings were not included. Three types of treatment were investigated:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alcoholism in family systems</span> Social and psychological factors that cause alcoholism in families

Alcoholism in family systems refers to the conditions in families that enable alcoholism and the effects of alcoholic behavior by one or more family members on the rest of the family. Mental health professionals are increasingly considering alcoholism and addiction as diseases that flourish in and are enabled by family systems.

An addictive personality refers to a hypothesized set of personality traits that make an individual predisposed to developing addictions. This hypothesis states that there may be common personality traits observable in people suffering from addiction; however, the lack of a universally agreed upon definition has marked the research surrounding addictive personality. Addiction is a fairly broad term; it is most often associated with substance use disorders, but it can also be extended to cover a number of other compulsive behaviors, including sex, internet, television, gambling, food, and shopping. Within these categories of addiction a common diagnostic scale involves tolerance, withdraw, and cravings. This is a fairly contentious topic, with many experts suggesting the term be retired due to a lack of cumulative evidence supporting the existence of addictive personality. Stating that characteristics of personality attributed to addictive personality do not predict addiction, but can result from addiction. However, different personality traits have been linked to various types of addictive behaviors, suggesting that individual addictions may be associated with different personality profiles. The strongest consensus is that genetic factors play the largest role in determining a predisposition for addictive behaviors. Even then, however, genes play different roles in different types of addictions. Forty to seventy percent of the population variance in the expression of addictions can be explained by genetic factors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Addiction</span> Disease resulting in compulsive engagement in rewarding stimuli despite adverse consequences

Addiction is a neuropsychological disorder characterized by a persistent and intense urge to engage in certain behaviors, one of which is the usage of a drug, despite substantial harm and other negative consequences. Repetitive drug use often alters brain function in ways that perpetuate craving, and weakens self-control. This phenomenon – drugs reshaping brain function – has led to an understanding of addiction as a brain disorder with a complex variety of psychosocial as well as neurobiological factors that are implicated in addiction's development. Classic signs of addiction include compulsive engagement in rewarding stimuli, preoccupation with substances or behavior, and continued use despite negative consequences. Habits and patterns associated with addiction are typically characterized by immediate gratification, coupled with delayed deleterious effects.

About 1 in 7 Americans suffer from active addiction to a particular substance. Addiction can cause physical, psychological, and emotional harm to those who are affected by it. The American Society of Addiction Medicine defines addiction as "a treatable, chronic medical disease involving complex interactions among brain circuits, genetics, the environment, and an individual’s life experiences. People with addiction use substances or engage in behaviors that become compulsive and often continue despite harmful consequences." In the world of psychology and medicine, there are two models that are commonly used in understanding the psychology behind addiction itself. One model is referred to as the disease model of addiction. The disease model suggests that addiction is a diagnosable disease similar to cancer or diabetes. This model attributes addiction to a chemical imbalance in an individual's brain that could be caused by genetics or environmental factors. The second model is the choice model of addiction, which holds that addiction is a result of voluntary actions rather than some dysfunction of the brain. Through this model, addiction is viewed as a choice and is studied through components of the brain such as reward, stress, and memory. Substance addictions relate to drugs, alcohol, and smoking. Process addictions relate to non-substance-related behaviors such as gambling, spending money, sexual activity, gaming, spending time on the internet, and eating.

Relapse prevention (RP) is a cognitive-behavioral approach to relapse with the goal of identifying and preventing high-risk situations such as unhealthy substance use, obsessive-compulsive behavior, sexual offending, obesity, and depression. It is an important component in the treatment process for alcohol use disorder, or alcohol dependence.

Andrew Tatarsky is an American psychologist, and the founder and director of The Center for Optimal Living. He teaches in New York City as the Professor of Professional Practice for the Harm Reduction Psychotherapy Certificate Program at the New School for Social Research. Tatarsky is known for developing Integrative Harm Reduction Therapy (IHRP), a treatment for the spectrum of substance use disorders and other high-risk behaviors.

Linda Carter Sobell, Ph.D., ABPP, is the President's Distinguished Professor at Nova Southeastern University (NSU) in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. She is a professor of clinical psychology, addiction specialist, co-director of NSU's Guided Self-Change clinic, a Motivational Interviewing Trainer, and is board-certified in cognitive and behavioral psychology.

Guided self-change (GSC) treatment has been accepted by American Psychological Association Division 12, Society of Clinical Psychology, as an empirically supported treatment.

Subjective response to alcohol (SR) refers to an individual's unique experience of the pharmacological effects of alcohol and is a putative risk factor for the development of alcoholism. Subjective effects include both stimulating experiences typically occurring during the beginning of a drinking episode as breath alcohol content (BAC) rises and sedative effects, which are more prevalent later in a drinking episode as BAC wanes. The combined influence of hedonic and aversive subjective experiences over the course of a drinking session are strong predictors of alcohol consumption and drinking consequences. There is also mounting evidence for consideration of SR as an endophenotype with some studies suggesting that it accounts for a significant proportion of genetic risk for the development of alcohol use disorder.

Jalie A Tucker is a Professor of Health Education and Behavior at the University of Florida. She is known for her research on impulsive and harmful behaviors, such as alcohol and substance use, the effect of the environment on addiction, and natural resolutions to risky behavior including alcohol misuse. She has received numerous awards for excellence in clinical psychology and addiction research, including the 2015 Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions to Clinical Psychology from the Society of Clinical Psychology. She was honored by APA, Division 50 with the Presidential Award for Service to the Division in 2010 and 2012.

Nancy M. Petry was a psychologist known for her research on behavioral treatments for addictive disorders, behavioral pharmacology, impulsivity and compulsive gambling. She was Professor of Medicine at the University of Connecticut Health Center. Petry served as a member of the American Psychiatric Association Workgroup on Substance Use Disorders for the DSM-5 and chaired the Subcommittee on Non-Substance Behavioral Addictions. The latter category includes Internet addiction disorder and problem gambling. She also served as a member of the Board of Advisors of Children and Screens: Institute of Digital Media and Child Development.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can affect about 3.6% of the U.S. population each year, and 6.8% of the U.S. population over a lifetime. 8.4% of people in the U.S. are diagnosed with substance use disorders (SUD). Of those with a diagnosis of PTSD, a co-occurring, or comorbid diagnosis of a SUD is present in 20–35% of that clinical population.

Mary E. Larimer is an American psychologist and academic. Larimer is a Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral sciences, Professor or Psychology, and the Director of the Center for the Study of Health & Risk Behaviors at University of Washington (UW). Additionally, she serves as a psychologist at the Psychiatry Clinic at UW Medical Center-Roosevelt.

References

  1. "Katie Witkiewitz, Ph.D." casaa.unm.edu. Retrieved August 23, 2020.
  2. "Past Officers | Society of Addiction Psychology". addictionpsychology.org. Retrieved August 23, 2020.
  3. "List of Awards and Recipients". addictionpsychology.org. Society of Addiction Psychology. Retrieved August 23, 2020.
  4. 1 2 Witkiewitz, Katie; Kranzler, Henry R.; Hallgren, Kevin A.; O'Malley, Stephanie S.; Falk, Daniel E.; Litten, Raye Z.; Hasin, Deborah S.; Mann, Karl F.; Anton, Raymond F. (November 5, 2018). "Drinking Risk Level Reductions Associated with Improvements in Physical Health and Quality of Life Among Individuals with Alcohol Use Disorder". Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. 42 (12): 2453–2465. doi:10.1111/acer.13897. ISSN   0145-6008. PMC   6286196 . PMID   30395350.
  5. Witkiewitz, Katie (October 17, 2012). ""Success" Following Alcohol Treatment: Moving Beyond Abstinence". Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. 37: E9–E13. doi:10.1111/acer.12001. ISSN   0145-6008. PMID   23075307.
  6. Witkiewitz, Katie; Hallgren, Kevin A.; Kranzler, Henry R.; Mann, Karl F.; Hasin, Deborah S.; Falk, Daniel E.; Litten, Raye Z.; O'Malley, Stephanie S.; Anton, Raymond F. (December 26, 2016). "Clinical Validation of Reduced Alcohol Consumption After Treatment for Alcohol Dependence Using the World Health Organization Risk Drinking Levels". Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. 41 (1): 179–186. doi: 10.1111/acer.13272 . ISSN   0145-6008. PMC   5205540 . PMID   28019652.
  7. Witkiewitz, Katie; Roos, Corey R.; Pearson, Matthew R.; Hallgren, Kevin A.; Maisto, Stephen A.; Kirouac, Megan; Forcehimes, Alyssa A.; Wilson, Adam D.; Robinson, Charles S.; McCallion, Elizabeth; Tonigan, J. Scott (January 2017). "How Much Is Too Much? Patterns of Drinking During Alcohol Treatment and Associations With Post-Treatment Outcomes Across Three Alcohol Clinical Trials". Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. 78 (1): 59–69. doi:10.15288/jsad.2017.78.59. ISSN   1937-1888. PMC   5148751 . PMID   27936365.