Warren Bickel, an addiction neuroscientist with the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute (VTCRI), will brief a group of White House officials today (Tuesday, March 6) on the latest behavioral decision science underlying drug addiction and intervention, particularly in terms of opioids.

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy invited Bickel to make the presentation. 

An expert in the role neural systems play in choices — in this case, why people use illicit drugs even though they know their choices will cause them longer-term harm — Bickel will talk about research that explains why people become more likely to sacrifice the future for drugs.

He serves as the Virginia Tech Carilion Behavioral Health Research Professor, director of the VTCRI Addiction Recovery Research Center, and as a faculty member in the Department of Psychology in the Virginia Tech College of Science. 

Bickel, whose research since 1983 has helped lead to opioid replacement therapies currently in use, is currently collaborating on an 18-month Phase Three clinical trial to study an investigational medication-assisted behavioral intervention to prevent opioid users from relapsing during recovery.

 

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