Professor, Psychology, College of Arts & Sciences
Faculty Affiliate, Aging Studies Institute
Faculty Affiliate, Center for Aging and Policy Studies
Biography:
Dr. Joseph W. Ditre is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at Syracuse University. He is a licensed clinical psychologist and holds secondary appointments in the Department of Medicine at Upstate Medical University, and in the Center for Integrated Healthcare at the Syracuse VA Medical Center. He is also Director of the Pain and Addiction Research Lab and the Program for Advancing Health Equity in Pain and Addiction.
Dr. Ditre’s clinical translational research applies a multi-method approach to address complex interplay between the experience of acute/chronic pain, use/misuse of addictive substances (prescription opioids, nicotine/tobacco, alcohol, cannabis, benzodiazepines), comorbid psychopathology (anxiety, depression), and social determinants of health (driving factors for health disparities in racial/ethnic and socioeconomically disadvantaged populations).
Dr. Ditre’s research cuts across basic and applied work in the areas of health psychology and behavioral medicine, with an emphasis on the intersection of addictive behaviors and comorbid medical disorders. At the broadest level, this research examines how the use of substances may influence the onset and progression of comorbid medical disorders, and how the symptoms and sequelae of medical disorders may influence the use of addictive substances. More specifically, he has established a programmatic line of research that applies a multi-method approach to the study of complex interrelations between pain, affect, comorbid psychopathology, and the maintenance of addiction.
Dr. Ditre’s has published over 100 scholarly works, and his program of research has been funded by National Institutes of Health since 2007, with a primary focus on conceptualizing and testing bi-directional relations between the experience of acute and chronic pain and the self-administration of nicotine, tobacco, alcohol, cannabis, benzodiazepines, and prescription opioids.
