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Charles P. O'Brien, MD, PhD (born August 20, 1939, New Orleans, Louisiana) is a research scientist, medical educator and a leading expert in the science and treatment of addiction. He is board certified in neurology, psychiatry and addiction psychiatry.〔 He is currently the Kenneth E. Appel Professor of Psychiatry, and Vice Chair of Psychiatry, in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Faculty Members: Charles P. O'Brien, MD, PhD )〕 ==Career== O’Brien earned MD and PhD degrees from Tulane University in 1964 and 1966, respectively,〔 and received residency training in internal medicine, neurology and psychiatry at Harvard University, Tulane, the University of London, and the University of Pennsylvania. While serving as Chief of Psychiatry at the Veterans Administration (VA) Medical Center in Philadelphia,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=APA DSM-V Task Force Member Disclosure Report )〕 O’Brien in 1971 founded and became director of a clinical research program consisting of a group of VA and University of Pennsylvania scientists. From 1971 until 2013, he served as director of this research center, called the Center for Studies of Addiction at the University of Pennsylvania. He and the center’s other researchers made many discoveries about the treatment of addictive disorders, and published their research findings in more than 500 research papers,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Panel Members: Philadelphia, PA Location, May 2012 )〕 all authored or co-authored by O'Brien, and published in peer-reviewed scientific journals. O'Brien and his colleagues at the Center for Studies of Addiction received personal praise, for their innovative research and results in helping patients recover from drug addiction, from U.S. President George H.W. Bush during a September 1991 tour of the center. In addition to conducting scientific research, O’Brien also has advised U.S. government authorities on policies affecting the availability of drugs, including alcohol and tobacco, as well as on government's proper role in preventing and treating addictive disorders. He has also provided policy advice about drugs and addiction to many other countries, especially France. In the USA, O'Brien has chaired or served as a member of many Institute of Medicine committees dealing with science and drug abuse policy matters.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Directory: IOM Member - Charles P. O'Brien, M.D., Ph.D. )〕 From 2007 to 2013, he served as chairperson of the Substance Use Disorders Committee of the American Psychiatric Association.〔 The purpose of this committee was to revise the primary classification system, known as DSM-5, that psychiatrists use in diagnosing mental illnesses, including addiction disorders. There was no validated measure of addiction in the 1970s, so O’Brien began work, together with A. Thomas McLellan, PhD, to develop the "Addiction Severity Index," a tool that was later translated into over 30 languages and which by 2012 was being used throughout the world to determine the extent of patients' problems and tailor appropriate treatment approaches. Naltrexone, an opioid receptor antagonist, was already in use by the early 1980s as a medication for treating addiction to heroin and other opioids, but not alcohol addiction. Based on animal studies, O’Brien in the 1980s theorized that alcohol produced pleasure by releasing endorphins – the brain’s naturally occurring opioids. Accordingly, blocking endorphin receptors might help alcoholics resist drinking. In 1983, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted permission to test this theory on patients. With funding provided by the U.S. Veterans Administration Substance Abuse Center in Philadelphia, O’Brien and one of his students, fellow University of Pennsylvania psychiatrist Joseph Volpicelli, and others conducted a study in which all addiction patients received counseling, but half of the them also received Naltrexone, while the other half received a placebo. During three months of treatment, those receiving Naltrexone had fewer relapses to heavy drinking and reported less craving and less pleasure when they did drink. Working from these observations, O’Brien and his colleagues discovered a new treatment for alcoholism using Naltrexone.〔''Archives of General Psychiatry'', 1992〕 In 1995, the FDA approved Naltrexone for the treatment of alcohol dependence, ushering in a new era of alcoholism treatment which, prior to this time, had been limited mainly to psychotherapy and psychosocial interventions such as Alcoholics Anonymous. In later studies, O’Brien and his colleagues noticed that Naltrexone seemed to work effectively on only a subset of alcohol-addicted patients. The researchers began investigating why some alcoholics respond well to Naltrexone while others do not. Their work led to the discovery of genes that determine the extent of pleasure one feels when drinking alcohol.〔''Neuropsychopharmacology'', 2003〕 Individuals with a particular genetic variant have a sensitive endogenous opioid system that is activated by alcohol, thereby producing stimulation and euphoria.〔 Naltrexone blocks this form of alcohol reward, so the medication is particularly effective for these individuals.〔''Archives of General Psychiatry'', 2008〕 Aimed at establishing a genomic sub-category of alcoholism, this work seemed to support the movement toward "personalized medicine" in the treatment of alcoholism. O'Brien and his colleagues never applied for a patent on the discovery of Naltrexone’s effectiveness for treating alcohol addiction, so this treatment continues to be used at no cost worldwide. He has served as president of both the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology and the Association for Research in Nervous and Mental Disease.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Charles P. O'Brien」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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