Author, psychiatrist will talk about ‘What IF We Went Beyond a Disease Model of Addiction?’

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — What are the limitations of the disease model of addiction and what are its benefits? How does this affect our understanding of the roots of the opioid crisis and potential remedies?

Author and psychiatrist Dr. Sally Satel will address the question “What IF We Went Beyond a Disease Model of Addiction?” on Oct. 29. The event is a part of Purdue’s Ideas Festival, the centerpiece of the Purdue university’s Giant Leaps Sesquicentennial Campaign, which is a series of events that connect world-renowned speakers and Purdue expertise in a conversation on the most critical problems facing the world. One of the Ideas Festival’s themes is health, longevity and quality of life.

Purdue President Mitch Daniels will join Satel for a dialogue about opioids starting at 6:30 p.m. in Stewart Center’s Fowler Hall. Sponsored by the College of Pharmacy, the event is free and open to the public.

Satel is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank, and a resident psychiatrist at a methadone clinic.  She serves on the National Advisory Council of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, part of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

An assistant professor at Yale University from 1988-1993, she continues to lecture there. From 1993 to 1994 she was a Robert Wood Johnson policy fellow with the U.S. Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee.

She has written widely in academic journals on topics in psychiatry and medicine and has published articles on cultural aspects of medicine and science in numerous magazines and professional journals. She has testified before Congress on veterans’ issues, mental health policy, drug courts and health disparities.

Satel's most recent book, which she co-authored, is "Brainwashed: The Seductive Appeal of Mindless Neuroscience." It was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in science. Earlier books she authored or co-authored include "Drug Treatment: The Case for Coercion," "PC, M.D.: How Political Correctness Is Corrupting Medicine," "When Altruism Isn’t Enough: The Case for Compensating Kidney Donors," "The Health Disparities Myth: Diagnosing the Treatment Gap" and "One Nation Under Therapy." 

Writer: Jeanne Norberg 

Media contact: Amy Patterson Neubert, 765-494-9723, apatterson@purdue.edu 

Source: Dana Neary, manager of alumni relations and special events, College of Pharmacy, 765-494-2632, nearyd@purdue.edu