Dr. Petros Levounis
Professor, Chair, and Chief of Service
Rutgers New Jersey Medical School and University Hospital
Petros Levounis, MD, MA, serves as professor and chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, and chief of service at University Hospital in Newark, New Jersey. Dr. Levounis came to Rutgers from Columbia University where he served as director of the Addiction Institute of New York from 2002 to 2013. Dr. Levounis has written numerous articles, monographs, and book chapters; has lectured extensively on addiction topics throughout the United States and abroad; and has been interviewed by CBS, ABC, NBC, CNN, FOX, The Martha Stewart Radio Show, The New York Times, and The Washington Post, among others.
Dr. Levounis has served on the boards of the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) and the American Board of Addiction Medicine, and from 2005 to 2009 chaired the national Committee on Addiction Treatment of the American Psychiatric Association (APA). Dr. Levounis is a Betty Ford Scholar, a recipient of the Association of Gay and Lesbian Psychiatrists’ Distinguished Service Award and the ASAM Educator of the Year Award, a distinguished fellow of the APA and ASAM, and an honorary member of the World Psychiatric Association.
Dr. Levounis has written numerous articles, monographs, and book chapters; has lectured extensively on addiction topics throughout the United States and abroad; and has been interviewed by CBS, ABC, NBC, CNN, FOX, The Martha Stewart Radio Show, The New York Times, and The Washington Post, among others.
KEYNOTE
The New Neurobiology of Addiction and Implications for the Treatment of Opioid Use Disorder
From a neurobiological perspective, addiction can be seen as the hijacking of the pleasure-reward pathways of the brain and a weakening of its executive function. In 2020, the fundamental model has been expanded to include newer concepts such as motivational circuitry and anti-reward pathways. These 21st century discoveries inform clinical innovations that are now changing the landscape of the pharmacological and psychosocial treatments of opioid use disorder.