A. Eden Evins, M.D., M.P.H.
Founding Director and Principal Investigator, Center for Addiction Medicine; Cox Family Professor of Psychiatry in the Field of Addiction Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Dr. Evins is the Cox Family Professor of Psychiatry in the field of addiction medicine at Harvard Medical School and the founder and director of the Center for Addiction Medicine at MGH. Dr. Evins completed her residency in adult psychiatry at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center and the Longwood Psychiatry Residency Training Program. In addition, she completed a fellowship in molecular biology at the Mailman Research Center of McLean Hospital, a fellowship in clinical research at Massachusetts General Hospital, and a Masters in Public Health with a concentration in Clinical Effectiveness at the Harvard School of Public Health in 2005.
Dr. Evins has 17 years of consecutive NIDA funding to conduct, as PI, studies of the efficacy of pharmacotherapeutic cessation aids in smokers with and without serious mental illness, and of the effect of nicotine on cognitive performance in those with and without schizophrenia. She has also conducted NIDA-funded studies of behavioral, physiologic, and fMRI-ascertained assessments of impulsivity, risk-taking, reactivity to drug-related cues, and the relationship between cue reactivity and relapse to drug use. A newer line of investigation explores the effect of cannabis on psychiatric symptoms, cognitive function, and addictive behaviors. She has conducted a series of studies that have changed clinical practice guidelines for smoking cessation for those with serious mental illness. Cochrane Reviews on smoking cessation in schizophrenia are based largely on this work (Tsoi et al.; 2010, 2013 Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews). Dr. Evins has extensive ties with Community Health Centers that have made it possible to conduct large clinical studies. She has been PI of a 10-site multi-center study conducted in community mental health centers across 6 US states.
She has mentored over 35 junior investigators, many with K awards, and has authored over 100 publications, including 42 publications with a mentee as first author.