Marc POTENZA – New Haven

Dr. Potenza is a board-certified psychiatrist with sub-specialty training in addiction psychiatry.  Currently, he is an Albert E. Kent Professor of Psychiatry, Child Study and Neuroscience at the Yale University School of Medicine where he is the Director of the Division on Addictions Research, the Center of Excellence in Gambling Research, the Women and Addictive Disorders Core of Women’s Health Research at Yale and the Yale Research Program on Impulsivity and Impulse Control Disorders.  He is on the editorial boards of over fifteen journals (including editor-in-chief of Current Addiction Reports) and has received multiple national and international awards for excellence in research and clinical care.  He has consulted to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, National Registry of Effective Programs, National Institutes of Health, American Psychiatric Association and World Health Organization (WHO) on matters of addiction. He has participated in the DSM-5 text revision, two DSM-5 research work groups and six annual WHO meetings relating to internet use and addictive behaviors in the ICD-11, addressing topics relating to gambling, gaming, impulse control, and addiction.

Dr. Potenza’s research has focused on the neurobiology and treatment of substance and non-substance addictive behaviors and disorders and those characterized by impaired impulse control and reward-related motivations.  The majority of this work has focused on understanding clinical and neurobiological underpinnings and their co-occurrences with other mental health disorders, in order to advance prevention, treatment and public health strategies.  Dr. Potenza’s research has applied brain imaging, genetic, epidemiological and clinical trials methodologies to gain knowledge and improve prevention and treatment strategies for addictive behaviors and disorders.  This work has also involved identifying potential intermediary phenotypes, like facets of impulsivity, that may in part explain the high rates of co-occurrence between psychiatric conditions and might represent novel targets for intervention strategies.