Dr. Kenneth Perkins' laboratory has examined acute effects of nicotine and cigarette smoking in adults that may explain the persistence of tobacco dependence since 1986. The first two decades of this effort resulted in his being listed among the top 100 most cited authors in tobacco and nicotine research and the top 70 most productive faculty in clinical psychology. Dr. Perkins' is the Principal Investigator of the first programmatic lab-based research in humans funded by the National Institutes of Health on: 1) nicotine and energy balance, to help determine why smoking lowers body weight, which may help maintain smoking in those with weight concerns; 2) chronic tolerance to nicotine (tolerance being a classic hallmark of abused drugs) and examination of associations of tolerance with dependence; 3) discriminative stimulus effects of nicotine, believed related to nicotine reinforcement; and 4) sex differences in the reinforcing and rewarding effects of nicotine vs. non-nicotine stimuli of smoking. His more recent projects focused on developing and validating an efficient procedure for initial screening novel medications for evidence of smoking cessation efficacy, and on nicotine’s reinforcement enhancing effects.
Location: Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic Auditorium
For More Information: Please contact Frances Patrick (patrickfm@upmc.edu).
Continuing Education Credit: The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians. The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine designates this educational activity for a maximum of 1.5 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditsTM. Each physician should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity. Other health care professionals are awarded .15 continuing education units (CEUs), which are equal to 1.5 contact hours. In accordance with Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education requirements on disclosure, information about relationships of presenters with commercial interests (if any) will be included in materials which will be distributed at the time of the conference. WPIC is approved by the American Psychological Association to offer continuing education for psychologists. WPIC maintains responsibility for this program and its contents. This program is being offered for 1.5 continuing education credits.
