Alison Oliveto
Professor
faculty
PSY Psychiatry, College of Medicine
Research Areas
Links
Biography and Research Information
OverviewAI-generated summary
Alison Oliveto is a professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, College of Medicine. Her research career, supported by continuous NIH funding since 1993, focuses on improving treatments and access to care for substance use disorders. As a trained behavioral pharmacologist, her translational research encompasses human laboratory and clinical trials, with a primary emphasis on psychostimulant and opioid use disorders.
During her tenure at Yale School of Medicine, Oliveto established and directed the Outpatient Treatment Research Program at the West Haven VA Healthcare System, coordinating multi-institutional efforts for medication development trials. She later served as Scientific Director for a NIDA P50 center, where she was responsible for mentoring physician scientists and research staff. In 2004, she relocated her research program to UAMS, continuing to build an addiction research program.
Oliveto's work has resulted in 129 publications and over 3,253 citations, with an h-index of 31. Her recent publications investigate topics such as the utility of controlled withdrawal paradigms for methamphetamine users, the acceptability of game-based interventions for adolescent prescription opioid misuse, and the impact of smoking status on cognitive and neural responses. She also collaborates with researchers at UAMS, including Michael J. Mancino, Jeff Thostenson, Srinivasa Gokarakonda, and Lauren Russell.
Research Overview
Historically, my career aims have been to improve upon treatments/ treatment access for substance use disorder as well as generally facilitate research in addiction and beyond. As a trained behavioral pharmacologist, I have had continuous NIH funding since 1993 conducting translational research in addiction, including human laboratory and clinical trials, with a focus on psychostimulant and/or opioid use disorders. In 1996 during my tenure at Yale School of Medicine, I established and directed the Outpatient Treatment Research Program at the West Haven CT Veterans Administration Healthcare System (VAHCS) that administratively involved three institutions (Yale, VAHCS, APT Foundation) to ensure the successful conduct of several medications development human laboratory and clinical trials. In 1998 I became Scientific Director of the NIDA P50 medications development center (T. Kosten, PI) and was responsible for coordinating the mentoring of physician scientists and fellows, overseeing research staff, and consolidating resources to maximize research productivity. When I accepted a faculty position at UAMS in 2004, I moved my research and established an addiction research program in the department of Psychiatry and became Vice Chair for Research in Psychiatry at UAMS. I have been responsible for intramural and extramural grant funding, overseeing the career development of clinician scientists, and establishing a research track for Psychiatry residents. I served in several leadership roles on campus, including in our CTSA-funded Translational Research Institute from 2014-2017. I directed the UAMS CTSA-supported Clinical Trials Unit, transforming culture and processes to maximize efficient, regulatory-compliant and rigorous conduct of multi-site trials. I became Director of Psychiatry's Center for Addiction Research in 2016 and have focused on strategic recruitment of addiction scientists as well as developing synergy among CAR/UAMS faculty. In 2020, I became the UAMS site principal investigator in the NIDA Clinical Trials Network Big/SouthWest Node and am awaiting funding on a NIDA CTN multi-site trial. Meanwhile, my focus has shifted to include drug prevention strategies and am currently leading the Arkansas State Epidemiological Outcomes Workgroup in partnership with state agencies, gathering, analyzing and disseminating trends in substance abuse and related outcomes in order to inform prevention efforts across the state.
Metrics
- h-index: 31
- Publications: 131
- Citations: 3,275
Selected Publications
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Randomized, placebo-controlled trial of gabapentin during outpatient buprenorphine-assisted taper and transition to injectable naltrexone (2025)
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Exploratory study of heart rate variability among participants with opioid use disorder inducted on gabapentin versus placebo during outpatient buprenorphine-assisted transition to injection naltrexone. (2025)
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A randomized clinical trial of disulfiram at higher doses for the treatment of cocaine use disorder among methadone-stabilized patients (2025)
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Gabapentin and D-cycloserine alone and in combination with naloxone in methadone-maintained humans responding under a naloxone novel-response discrimination procedure (2025)
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Effects of Recent Smoking and Daily Hassles on Mood and Craving During a Cigarette Quit Attempt (2025)
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A pilot study of ketamine among individuals with tobacco use disorder: tolerability and initial impact on tobacco use outcomes (2025)
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THE IMPACT OF FENTANYL ON TREATMENT OUTCOMES DURING AN OUTPATIENT BUPRENORPHINE TAPER WITH ADJUNCT GABAPENTIN (2024)
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Factors Related to Cannabis Use in Individuals Over 65 (2024)
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CANNABINOID-INVOLVED EXPOSURES, ED VISITS AND HOSPITALIZATIONS BEFORE AND AFTER ARKANSAS MEDICAL MARIJUANA LAW ENACTMENT: INITIAL TRENDS (2024)
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484 A Preliminary Study on the Pharmacodynamics of Oral Cannabis Ingestion in Older Adults (2024)
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289 Heart Rate Variability in Opioid Use Disordered Participants Undergoing Buprenorphine-Assisted Detoxification (2023)
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Smoking status affects cognitive, emotional and neural-connectivity response to distress-inducing auditory feedback (2023)
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Impact of state and trait anxiety severity on retention and phase advancement in an outpatient buprenorphine treatment program (2022)
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Acceptability of a Game-Based Intervention to Prevent Adolescent Prescription Opioid Misuse (2022)
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Utility of a controlled amphetamine withdrawal paradigm among adults who use methamphetamine: A pilot clinical trial (2021)
Research Interests
A behavioral pharmacologist by training, I have been a funded NIH researcher for over four decades, conducting translational research focused mainly on opioid and/or stimulant use disorders. Much of my work has focused on developing human laboratory and clinical trial study designs that serve as models for studying efficacious treatments. For instance, I participated in the development and testing of a methodological advance in human drug discrimination procedures (novel-response option) and applied this methodological advance to a human laboratory model of opioid withdrawal, through which two nonopioid compounds were identified as potential opioid withdrawal treatments. Moreover, my Yale colleague, Dr. Patrick O’Connor, and I piloted the first trial of office-based buprenorphine treatment for opioid use disorder. In addition, I developed in collaboration with Dr. Thomas Kosten a relapse paradigm for stimulant use disorder trials and identified the SSRI sertraline as a potentially efficacious relapse prevention treatment. I also mentored Dr. Michael Mancino (UAMS) on the development of a rigorous amphetamine withdrawal paradigm for his COBRE project (PI: Garcia-Rill) and Dr. Michael Wilson (UAMS) on developing a human laboratory model of “agitation”, which often occurs among methamphetamine users presenting to the ED. I am currently leading the Arkansas Statewide Epidemiology Outcomes Workgroup, monitoring substance use trends and related outcomes to help guide successful substance use prevention efforts in the state. Along these lines, I have been working with Dr. Ronald Thompson (UAMS) on developing and testing the efficacy of an adolescent game-based nonmusical prescription drug use prevention intervention along with a caregiver educational component. Meanwhile, I have returned to my behavioral pharmacology roots, piloting the effects of cannabis in older adults.; human behavioral pharmacology; substance use disorders; drug use prevention; opioids; Stimulants, Central; abuse liability; clinical trials
Grants & Funding
- No FP attached UAMS Internal Research Awards Principal Investigator
- No FP attached UAMS Intramural Grant (CTSA) Principal Investigator
- Improving Combined Buprenorphine-Behavioral Treatment NIH/NIDA Co-Investigator
- Family Bases Contingency Management for Adolescent Alcohol Abuse NIH/Nat. Inst. on Alcohol Abuse & Alcoholism - Pass Through: Dartmouth College Principal Investigator
- Improving Treatment Outcomes for Prescription Opioid Dependence - Continuation - Continuation - Continuation - Continuation NIH/Nat. Inst. on Drug Abuse Principal Investigator
- Distress Tolerance and Smoking Cessation NIH/Nat. Inst. on Drug Abuse - Pass Through: Wake Forest University Principal Investigator
- Improving Treatment Outcomes for Prescription Opioid Dependence NIH Principal Investigator
- Monoamine Antagonist Therapies for Methamphetamine Abuse NIH/Nat. Inst. on Drug Abuse Co-Investigator
Collaboration Network
Top Collaborators
- Utility of a controlled amphetamine withdrawal paradigm among adults who use methamphetamine: A pilot clinical trial
- Development and validation of a rapid liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry method to quantitate gabapentin and buprenorphine in human serum
- Impact of state and trait anxiety severity on retention and phase advancement in an outpatient buprenorphine treatment program
- Author response for "Development and Validation of a Rapid LC‐MS/MS based Method to Quantitate Gabapentin and Buprenorphine in Human Serum"
- Author response for "Development and Validation of a Rapid LC‐MS/MS based Method to Quantitate Gabapentin and Buprenorphine in Human Serum"
Showing 5 of 13 shared publications
- Smoking status affects cognitive, emotional and neural-connectivity response to distress-inducing auditory feedback
- A pilot study of ketamine among individuals with tobacco use disorder: tolerability and initial impact on tobacco use outcomes
- 289 Heart Rate Variability in Opioid Use Disordered Participants Undergoing Buprenorphine-Assisted Detoxification
- 484 A Preliminary Study on the Pharmacodynamics of Oral Cannabis Ingestion in Older Adults
- Effects of Recent Smoking and Daily Hassles on Mood and Craving During a Cigarette Quit Attempt
Showing 5 of 6 shared publications
- Development and validation of a rapid liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry method to quantitate gabapentin and buprenorphine in human serum
- Author response for "Development and Validation of a Rapid LC‐MS/MS based Method to Quantitate Gabapentin and Buprenorphine in Human Serum"
- Author response for "Development and Validation of a Rapid LC‐MS/MS based Method to Quantitate Gabapentin and Buprenorphine in Human Serum"
- Randomized, placebo-controlled trial of gabapentin during outpatient buprenorphine-assisted taper and transition to injectable naltrexone
- 484 A Preliminary Study on the Pharmacodynamics of Oral Cannabis Ingestion in Older Adults
- CANNABINOID-INVOLVED EXPOSURES, ED VISITS AND HOSPITALIZATIONS BEFORE AND AFTER ARKANSAS MEDICAL MARIJUANA LAW ENACTMENT: INITIAL TRENDS
- THE IMPACT OF FENTANYL ON TREATMENT OUTCOMES DURING AN OUTPATIENT BUPRENORPHINE TAPER WITH ADJUNCT GABAPENTIN
- A randomized clinical trial of disulfiram at higher doses for the treatment of cocaine use disorder among methadone-stabilized patients
- Development and validation of a rapid liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry method to quantitate gabapentin and buprenorphine in human serum
- Author response for "Development and Validation of a Rapid LC‐MS/MS based Method to Quantitate Gabapentin and Buprenorphine in Human Serum"
- Author response for "Development and Validation of a Rapid LC‐MS/MS based Method to Quantitate Gabapentin and Buprenorphine in Human Serum"
- Utility of a controlled amphetamine withdrawal paradigm among adults who use methamphetamine: A pilot clinical trial
- Adherence to guideline creation recommendations for suicide prevention in the emergency department: A systematic review
- Acceptability of a Game-Based Intervention to Prevent Adolescent Prescription Opioid Misuse
- Utility of a controlled amphetamine withdrawal paradigm among adults who use methamphetamine: A pilot clinical trial
- Exploratory study of heart rate variability among participants with opioid use disorder inducted on gabapentin versus placebo during outpatient buprenorphine-assisted transition to injection naltrexone.
- Randomized, placebo-controlled trial of gabapentin during outpatient buprenorphine-assisted taper and transition to injectable naltrexone
- Acceptability of a Game-Based Intervention to Prevent Adolescent Prescription Opioid Misuse
- Impact of state and trait anxiety severity on retention and phase advancement in an outpatient buprenorphine treatment program
- 484 A Preliminary Study on the Pharmacodynamics of Oral Cannabis Ingestion in Older Adults
- 289 Heart Rate Variability in Opioid Use Disordered Participants Undergoing Buprenorphine-Assisted Detoxification
- 484 A Preliminary Study on the Pharmacodynamics of Oral Cannabis Ingestion in Older Adults
- Factors Related to Cannabis Use in Individuals Over 65
- THE IMPACT OF FENTANYL ON TREATMENT OUTCOMES DURING AN OUTPATIENT BUPRENORPHINE TAPER WITH ADJUNCT GABAPENTIN
- Gabapentin and D-cycloserine alone and in combination with naloxone in methadone-maintained humans responding under a naloxone novel-response discrimination procedure
- Randomized, placebo-controlled trial of gabapentin during outpatient buprenorphine-assisted taper and transition to injectable naltrexone
- Utility of a controlled amphetamine withdrawal paradigm among adults who use methamphetamine: A pilot clinical trial
- Adherence to guideline creation recommendations for suicide prevention in the emergency department: A systematic review
- Utility of a controlled amphetamine withdrawal paradigm among adults who use methamphetamine: A pilot clinical trial
- A randomized clinical trial of disulfiram at higher doses for the treatment of cocaine use disorder among methadone-stabilized patients
- Acceptability of a Game-Based Intervention to Prevent Adolescent Prescription Opioid Misuse
- Impact of state and trait anxiety severity on retention and phase advancement in an outpatient buprenorphine treatment program
- Smoking status affects cognitive, emotional and neural-connectivity response to distress-inducing auditory feedback
- Effects of Recent Smoking and Daily Hassles on Mood and Craving During a Cigarette Quit Attempt
- 289 Heart Rate Variability in Opioid Use Disordered Participants Undergoing Buprenorphine-Assisted Detoxification
- Exploratory study of heart rate variability among participants with opioid use disorder inducted on gabapentin versus placebo during outpatient buprenorphine-assisted transition to injection naltrexone.
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