Substance Abuse

Director: Charles Schuster, PhD
UPC - Jefferson Avenue Research Clinic
Phone: 313.993.3406

The headquarters of the Substance Abuse Clinical Research Division (CRD-SA) is located at the University Psychiatric Clinics site at 2761 East Jefferson. 

Dr. Charles Schuster is Division Director and Program Director of the Jefferson Ave. Research Clinic; Dr. Chris-Ellyn Johanson is Chief of the Human Pharmacology Laboratory. 

CRD-SA faculty conduct cutting-edge human research (e.g., abuse liability assessment, etiology, neurobiological mechanisms, risk-taking behavior, behavioral and physiological toxic consequences of drug abuse); develop and provide state-of-the-art clinical interventions (e.g., new medications, contingency management) with difficult-to-treat populations (e.g., comorbid psychopathology, polydrug abusers); and oversee education (e.g., coursework, postdoctoral/medical resident training, clinical psychologists and social workers) on the full spectrum of medical, behavioral and psychosocial problems associated with substance abuse. 

The members of the SA-CRD have collaborative research projects with a number of investigators within the university and as well with substance abuse investigators throughout the world. 

Staff:

Charles R. Schuster, Ph.D. is Director of the CRD-SA and Professor of DPBN. He is Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Michigan and collaborates with Dr. James Woods who conducts assesments of abuse liability in non-human primates. Dr. Schuster is a among the world's foremost experts, in the areas of substance abuse (animal and human) research, treatment, and policy. He is a member of the WHO Expert Committee on Drug Dependence. Dr. Schuster is a former Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).

Chris-Ellyn Johanson, Ph.D. is Chief of the Human Research Laboratory and Professor of DPBN. She is an internationally respected drug abuse scientist with extensive experience in both animal and human studies. Research interests: factors influencing vulnerability/resistance to substance abuse, abuse liability assessment, drug reinforcement, cocaine abuse/ dependence, and effects of sedative/hypnotic drugs.

Mark Greenwald, Ph.D. is an experimental psychologist and Assistant Professor of DPBN. Research interests: neuropsychopharmacology of opioids, psychostimulants, and marijuana; laboratory screening of medications for opioid and cocaine abuse; drug craving and self-administration; psychiatric comorbidity and risk factors for drug abuse; drug effects on sensory and affective functioning and behavioral disinhibition (impulsivity, aggression).

John Hopper, M.D., the CRD-SA Medical Director, is a board-certified physician in Pediatrics and Internal Medicine and Assistant Professor with the Departments of Pediatrics, Internal Medicine, and DPBN. He oversees medical screening for all studies and provides continuing care and referrals for research participants and treatment clients. Research interests: smoking cessation, harm reduction, and health consequences of substance abuse on both the individual and family.

Manuel Tancer, M.D. is a Professor of DPBN, who is involved in clinical care and research. Research interests: using pharmacological probes to study anxiety (e.g., effects of caffeine in panic disorder and social phobia) and individual differences in susceptibility to substance abuse (e.g., effects of serotonin depletion on stimulant self-administration), positron emission tomography (PET) and other neuroimaging procedures to study substance abuse, and clinical trials with schizophrenic patients (at Detroit VAMC).

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