Kimberly S. Walitzer, PhD

Dr. Walitzer’s current research interests surround the treatment of addictions, specifically alcohol and, more recently, tobacco. Over the course of the past 25 years, she has been actively involved in NIAAA-funded research programs to evaluate treatment strategies and their mechanisms of action. The overarching specific aims of her work are twofold: she is particularly interested in evaluating the efficacy of addictions treatment strategies and also their dissemination and implementation in real-world treatment services. Her research career has focused on treatment strategies for alcohol use disorder such as facilitating involvement in Alcoholics Anonymous, skills therapy, motivational enhancement approaches, couples therapy and anger management-based therapy. Recently, her interests are moving toward the study of psychopharmacology integrated with behavioral therapies for alcohol use disorder and tobacco dependence.

• Behavioral addictions treatment (alcohol and tobacco)
• Skills therapy, motivational enhancement therapy, anger management-based therapy, AA facilitation
• Assessment of clinical domains related to addictions specifically and mental disorders more broadly
• Statistical approaches for longitudinal randomized controlled trials
• Clinical supervision of standardized addictions treatment protocols
• Research supervision of clinical trials
• Randomized clinical trial methodology