Dr. Nora Volkow, The Opioid Epidemic in America

Monday, April 10, noon

Biotech Place, Winston-Salem

Dr. Nora Volkow, the longtime director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse and a highly accomplished researcher, will be giving a talk in the atrium of Biotech Place (in the Innovation Quarter, just east of downtown Winston-Salem) on Monday, April 10th at noon. The talk is free and open to the public.

The topic of her talk is “The Opioid Epidemic in America.”

In addition to this being a highly timely and regionally relevant topic, Dr. Volkow is known to be a dynamic speaker.

Nora Volkow

Nora Volkow, M.D., became Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) at the National Institutes of Health in May 2003. NIDA supports most of the world’s research on the health aspects of drug abuse and addiction.

Volkow’s work has been instrumental in demonstrating that drug addiction is a disease of the human brain. As a research psychiatrist and scientist, Dr. Volkow pioneered the use of brain imaging to investigate the toxic effects and addictive properties of abusable drugs. Her studies have documented changes in the dopamine system affecting, among others, the functions of frontal brain regions involved with motivation, drive, and pleasure in addiction. She has also made important contributions to the neurobiology of obesity, ADHD, and aging.

Photo: teens.drugabuse.gov