Stephanie Samples O’Malley, recently named as the Elizabeth Mears and House Jameson Professor of Psychiatry, focuses her research on the development of more effective treatments for substance use disorders, primarily the abuse of alcohol and tobacco, and research supporting effective policies to regulate tobacco.
O’Malley’s study on the efficacy of naltrexone for treating alcoholism was pivotal to the approval of this medication by the Food and Drug Administration in 1994. She has continued to study the efficacy of pharmacotherapies and behavioral interventions for treating addictive disorders using human laboratory paradigms and clinical trials.
O’Malley received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Vanderbilt University and joined the faculty of Yale University School of Medicine in 1984. She serves as the deputy chair for clinical research and director of the Division of Substance Abuse Research in the Department of Psychiatry.
The Yale professor co-leads the Yale Tobacco Center for Regulatory Science, which evaluates the effects of flavors and nicotine on the appeal, use and addictive potential of existing and emerging tobacco products, such as e-cigarettes, as well as their potential for harm reduction among current cigarette smokers. She is also the deputy director of the Center for the Translational Neuroscience of Alcoholism, which is funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Previously, she directed the Yale Transdisciplinary Tobacco Use Research Center. O’Malley is actively involved in mentoring junior faculty and co-leads a National Institute on Drug Abuse-supported Clinician Scientist Training program for faculty-level investigators.
O’Malley served as president of the Research Society on Alcoholism from 2001 to 2003. She received the Joel Elkes International Award for Exceptional Contributions to Psychopharmacology from the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, the Dan Anderson Research Award from the Hazelden Foundation, the Betty Ford Award from the Association for Medical Education and Research in Substance Abuse, an American Psychological Association Presidential Citation for leadership and research in the field of addictions, the Tharp Award, and the Research Society on Alcoholism’s Distinguished Investigator Award.
From 2002 to 2007, O’Malley served on the National Advisory Council on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism of the National Institutes of Health. She is on the editorial board of JAMA Psychiatry and is a member of the Data and Safety Monitoring Board for the Clinical Trials Network of the National Institute on Drug Abuse.