John Roll, PhD
Washington Institute for Mental Health Research & Training

Evidence-based Answers for Substance Abuse

John Roll, director of the Washington Institute for Mental Health Research and Training, explains that his research addresses both basic and applied questions about drug use. On the basic science side, Roll examines behavioral pharmacology: how drugs, organisms, and environment interact to influence the use of drugs and the development of dependence.

On the applied side, Roll examines the effectiveness of behavioral therapies that get drug users to replace drug use with other behaviors that are more rewarding, also known as contingency management. He has studied behavioral treatments for smoking in teens and for the use of drugs such as methamphetamine and cocaine, including an evaluation of behavioral therapy in combination with drug court procedures.

While his work has focused on treatment, Roll said his goal is to move more toward the prevention side. He takes a big-picture approach to drug use, believing that it must be tackled through a combination of treatment, prevention, and law enforcement—as well as an understanding of the challenges faced by those particularly at risk.

Roll has acted as a principal investigator or co-/sub- investigator on numerous grants totaling several million dollars, most of them from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (a unit of the National Institutes of Health).