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Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies

"Addiction and Addiction Treatment"
LEAD RESEARCHERS

A. Thomas McLellan, PhD is a Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania and the Senior Scientist at the PENN/VA Center for Studies of Addiction. Dr. McLellan and colleagues have developed the Addiction Severity Index (ASI) and the Treatment Services Review (TSR) an d have used these evaluation instruments in over 150 studies of psychosocial therapy, pharmacotherapy, and combined interventions in the treatment of substance abuse disorders. He is interested in the measurement of treatment outcome and effectiveness and in the matching of particular types of treatment to specific types of patients.

Henrick J. Harwood is Vice President with the Lewin Group and has studied the economics and policy of alcohol and drug abuse since 1976. Previously he served in the Office of National Drug Control Policy/Executive Office of the President. He has been on staff at the Institute of Medicine/National Academy of Sciences and at the Research Triangle Institute, where he directed Economic Costs of Alcohol and Drug Abuse and Mental Illness--1980. Mr. Harwood is currently performing a new study of the costs of drug abuse for NIDA and NIAAA. He coedited the IOM report "Treating Drug Problems" and directed the economic analysis on the CALDATA study.

James W. Langenbucher, PhD is a Clinical Psychologist and Associate Professor at the Center of Alcohol Studies, Rutgers University. He is a federally funded researcher with interests in psychiatric diagnosis and the application of health economics to public policy for mental health services. Dr. Langenbucher is senior author of Socioeconomic Evaluations of Treatment, the most comprehensive review of the health economics of addictions treatment available, which was published in 1993 by the White House Printing Office and distributed broadly to lawmakers and policy analysts here and abroad.

Jeffrey C. Merrill is the Director for Economic and Policy Research of the Treatment Research Institute at the University Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He is currently involved in a number of research projects looking at issues pertaining to substance abuse and criminal justice, welfare reform, and managed care. Much of his work examines both the costs of substance abuse and the potential cost offsets that may result from prevention and treatment programs. Mr. Merrill serves as an advisor to a number of federal agencies and is the author of numerous articles as well as a book on health care reform.

Donald S. Shepard, PhD is Research Professor at the Institute for Health Policy at the Heller School, Brandeis University. A health economist, his research focuses on cost-effectiveness analysis and financing of substance abuse treatment and other services. Dr. Shepard is currently principal investigator of a multi-site NIDA study on cost-effectiveness of drug treatment and a NIAAA evaluation of the impact of managed care programs for substance abuse for Medicaid recipients in Massachusetts and Michigan. He also leads the cost and cost-effectiveness analyses in a major national study of substance abuse treatment (the Alcohol and Drug Services Study) and in an analysis of substance abuse treatment in Connecticut prisons.

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