Dr. Mark Gold gives a historical perspective on field of addiction from the original research of the brain disorder to current events.

Dr. Mark Gold is a frequent contributor to Psychology Today.

Dr. Mark Gold is an inventor, pioneering translational researcher, Eminent Scholar, Distinguished Professor, & Chairman whose career in translational neuroscience began in 1972. His theories have changed the field, stimulated research, and led to new treatments. Gold, while at the YSOM, proposed a novel brain mechanism and changes to explain opioid dependence and withdrawal, and discovered the anti-withdrawal efficacy of alpha-2 adrenergic agonists-clonidine and lofexidine. With his Yale colleague & mentor Herb Kleber, Gold helped change addiction psychiatry to disease management, evidence-based care with MATs, and evaluation & treatment of co-occurring disorders. He has made major contributions to Naloxone in overdose and Naltrexone and agonist therapies in OUD. Gold’s work proved that cocaine caused a relative dopamine deficiency, anhedonia & was addicting Gold pioneered the study of second-hand tobacco, cannabis, and opium smoke. Gold and Kelly Brownell co-chaired the historic Yale Conference on Food and hedonic overeating and the Oxford University Press textbook. Over his 25-year career at the University of Florida, he was a Professor of Neuroscience, physician-scientist at UF McKnight Brain Institute, and University bench-to-bedside leader. He became a UF Distinguished Professor, Eminent Scholar & Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry. He was awarded an innovator award from UF President as a translational researcher and inventor for work on Xhale Assurance’s disposable pulse oximetry ala sensor, which Philips acquired in 2018. Dr. Gold was a Founding Director of the MR-guided radiation oncology pioneer Viewray and AxoGen, the nerve recovery and repair platform. Since his retirement, Gold has continued his work as a researcher, mentor, and inventor working at WUSTL. Translating scientific progress to help patients, he worked with ADAPT Pharma on naloxone and naltrexone culminating in a HEAL grant to develop longer-acting formulations. He is on the BOD of education, intervention, and prevention organizations, including CADCA. ASAM presented Gold with the McGovern ” Annual Award for highly meritorious contributions … Lifetime pioneering work”. Dr. Gold has received the APA’s Foundation Fund Award, APF’s Pillar of Excellence, DEA & NAATP’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Research, and Distinguished Alumni Awards from Yale, WUSTL, and the University of Florida. He was a Founding Editor of the Journal of Addiction Medicine & UpToDate. Currently, the Specialty Chief Editor of SUDs and Behavioral Addictions in Frontiers in Public Health.

Since his retirement as a full-time academic in 2014, Dr. Mark Gold has continued his teaching, mentoring, research, and writing as a University of Florida Emeritus Eminent Scholar, Adjunct Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Washington University and an active member of the Clinical Council at the Washington University School of Medicine’s Public Health Institute. With Kelly Brownell, he has updated their ground-breaking Food and Addiction by Oxford University Press for a paperback edition and is currently working on updates and revisions for a Second edition. He has analyzed and presented epidemiological research on the opioid and emerging cocaine epidemics. He has written and lectured on responses to reduce overdose deaths, medication assisted therapies and opioid use disorders. He regularly lectures at Medical...