Alcohol and Tobacco: Medical and Sociological Aspects of Use, Abuse and Addiction

About Christian WetschkaHenriette WalterMichie HesselbrockOtto-Michael LeschVictor Hesselbrock

Otto Michael Lesch MD is currently President of the Austrian Society of Addiction Medicine Head of the Alcohol Research Group of the Medical University of Vienna Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy. Since 1972 he is responsible for longterm studies in alcohol dependence. He organized many international clinical trials and basic research in alcohol and tobacco dependence. He served 12 years as secretary of ESBRA and organized European networks for alcohol research. He always bridged the gap between basic and clinical research and developed clinical used tools to define subgroups of addiction for better treatment approaches. His assessment tools are now available in many different languages (www.LAT-online.at). Henriette Walter MD is University Professor at the Dept. of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy.  She is a member of the Senate and of many commissions of the Medical University Vienna. Dr. Walter is working in the field of alcoholism since more than 20 years both practically and scientifically with over 200 publications. She is secretary of the AUSAM the Austrian Society of Addiction Medicine and an ESBRA board member. She is associate editor of the Journal Hypnose a field in which she takes an active scientific interest since 1982. With the theory of frontalisation as the neuro-equivalent for the hypnotic state she contributed to the neuroimaging research in this field. She gives regular training courses in medical hypnosis. Christian Wetschka PhD.is socialpedagogue working in diverse socialtherapeutic and pastoral fields supervisor founder of Verein Struktur which provides commune-flats for alcohol dependent persons Michie N Hesselbrock PhD is Professor Emeritus at the School of Social Work and Professor of Psychiatry at the School of Medicine University of Connecticut.  She held the Zachs Chair  and was the founderand director of the PhD program at the School of Social Work before her retirement.   She has served on several NIH study sections and VA Merit review committees as a regular member and as an ad hoc reviewer.   Her research interests include epidemiology behavior genetics and health disparities of alcoholism and treatment Victor Hesselbrock PhD  is currently Professor and Interim Chairman Department of Psychiatry University of Connecticut School of Medicine.  He holds the Physicians Health Services endowed chair in Addiction Studies.  Dr. Hesselbrock is the Principal Investigator and Scientific Director of the University of Connecticuts NIH/NIAAA funded Alcohol Research Center and is co-PI of the NIH funded national Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism (COGA).  He is a past President of the Research Society on Alcoholism (RSA).  Dr. Hesselbrock is Associate Editor of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research a Review Editor for Addiction and a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.  His research interests include: the genetic epidemiology of alcoholism; co-morbid psychiatric conditions and substance dependence; and psychosocial cognitive and genetic risk factors for developing alcohol dependence and alcohol-related problems.