Denise B. Kandel, PhD
Professor of Sociomedical Sciences (in Psychiatry)

Denise Kandel, PhD., Head of the Department of Epidemiology of Substance Abuse at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, Professor of Sociomedical Sciences and Psychiatry at Columbia University. Major interests: the epidemiology, risk factors, and consequences of drug use, in particular smoking; the epidemiology of substance dependence; developmental pathways of problem behaviors in adolescence; the intergenerational transmission of deviance; animal models of epidemiological paradigms.

Current research activities focus on five areas: 1) the epidemiology of adolescent smoking; 2) the Gateway Hypothesis of drug involvement; 3) the intergenerational effects of parental drug use on child drug behavior and development; 4) epidemiology of non-medical prescription drug use; 5) epidemiology of post-traumatic stress disorder.

research summary

The epidemiology, risk factors, and consequences of drug use, in particular smoking; the epidemiology of substance dependence; developmental pathways of problem behaviors in adolescence; the intergenerational transmission of deviance; animal models of epidemiological paradigms.

Current research activities focus on five areas: 1) the epidemiology of adolescent smoking; 2) the Gateway Hypothesis of drug involvement; 3) the intergenerational effects of parental drug use on child drug behavior and development; 4) epidemiology of non-medical prescription drug use; 5) epidemiology of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Publications

• Kandel DB: Stages and Pathways of Drug Involement: Examining the Gateway Hypotheis, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England, 2002
• Hu M-C, Griesler P, Schaffran C, Kandel DB: Risk and Protective Factors for Nicotine Dependence in Adolescence.  J Child Psychol & Psychiatry 2011;52: 1063-1072
• Levine A, Huang YY, Disraldi B, Griffin Jr E, Pollak DD, Xu S, Yin D, Schaffran C, Kandel DB, Kandel ER: Molecular Mechanism for a Gateway Drug: Epigenetic Changes Initiated by Nicotine Prime Gene Expression by Cocaine. Sci Trans Med 2011;3: 107ra109
• Koob G, Kandel DB, Baler RD, Volkow N: Pathophysiology of Addiction, John Wiley & Sons, West Sussex,England, 2015
• Kandel ER, Kandel DB: Shattuck Lecture: A Basis for Nicotine as a Gateway Drug. NEJM 2014;371: 932-943