Prominent addiction scientist Kathleen T. Brady will close out the 2015-2016 season of the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute Distinguished Public Lecture Series on Thursday, April 28. Brady, who holds both a medical degree and a doctorate degree, will speak from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. The lecture will be preceded by a reception at 5 p.m. in the Virginia Tech Carilion café.

The Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute Distinguished Public Lecture Series is free and open to the public.

Brady will lecture on, “Stress and Addictions.” She studies the interplay of psychiatric conditions and substance abuse, with a particular focus on gender-specific issues as related to post-traumatic stress disorder in women. Brady will discuss the relationship between stressful life events and relapse in individuals with addictive disorders.

“Dr. Brady is one of the nation’s foremost addiction and substance abuse physician scientists,” said Michael Friedlander, Virginia Tech’s vice president for health sciences and technology, as well as the director of the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute. “As the chairperson of the Board of Scientific Counselors of the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism of the National Institutes of Health and the president-elect of the International Society of Addiction Medicine, Dr. Brady serves in multiple major national leadership roles for setting the nation’s agenda for research into the causes, prevention and treatment of addiction and substance abuse disorders. Although these challenges have been with us for many years, they are particularly demanding now when our country has such an increased prevalence of abuse, addiction, and deaths from the use of a variety of dangerous substances such as opioids.”

Brady is a Distinguished University Professor at the Medical University of South Carolina, where she also directs the South Carolina Clinical and Translational Research Institute. She also serves as the associate provost for clinical and translational research at the university.

“Dr. Brady’s own research has provided some of the most important insights into the interplay of stress, the endocrine system, and the decision-process that leads to the use, abuse, and ultimately addiction to a wide range of substances including alcohol, opioids, amphetamines, and marijuana,” said Friedlander. “She is recognized as both a leading researcher and addiction scientist as well as a national leader and voice for improved scientifically validated approaches to the prevention and treatment of substance abuse and addiction.”

Brady is the president of the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry, the largest professional group of psychiatrists focusing on work in substance abuse disorders. She is also the principal investigator and director of the Southern Consortium of the National Institute on Drug Abuse Clinical Trials Network. Sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, the program involves conducting clinical trials of empirically based substance abuse treatments in front-line treatment settings.

Brady earned her doctorate degree in pharmacology at the Medical College of Virginia, which now called the Virginia Commonwealth University, and her medical degree from the Medical University of South Carolina where she also completed her residency training and fellowship in psychiatry.

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