Behavioral Science

Sharon Walsh, Ph.D.

(Rutgers University, 1990)

Robert Straus Behavioral Sci B
Lexington Kentucky 40502
Phone: (859) 257-6485
e-mail: sharon.walsh@uky.edu

Research Description

Dr. Walsh is a Professor of Behavioral Science, Psychiatry, and Director of the Center on Drug and Alcohol Research. Prior to coming to the University of Kentucky in 2005, Dr. Walsh earned her M.S. (1987) and Ph.D. (1990) from Rutgers University in Behavioral Neuroscience.   Dr. Walsh joined the Behavioral Pharmacology Research Unit at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1990 as a postdoctoral fellow where she trained in human behavioral pharmacology. She joined the faculty in 1992 and in 2003 became Professor of Behavioral Science and Psychiatry. Dr. Walsh's clinical research has focused on pharmacological issues in opioid and cocaine dependence. She has conducted studies on pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic characteristics of opioid treatment agents, including buprenorphine, methadone and LAAM and has evaluated potential pharmacotherapies for efficacy and safety in the treatment of cocaine dependence. Dr. Walsh was the 1997 recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, has authored numerous papers, has served as a regular NIDA study section member and serves on the board of an array of professional associations in the field of substance abuse.

2011 Accomplishments

Dr. Walsh has served in numerous professional capacities this past year at the local, state, national and international levels while continuing to support a productive research and training program.  With regard to University service, Dr. Walsh continues in her role as Director of the Center on Drug and Alcohol Research (CDAR).  She also served on five University Committees: the Biomedical Research Advisory Board on behalf of the Dean of the College of Medicine, the M.D./Ph.D. Admissions Committee, the Dean’s Committee for Reorganization of the College of Medicine, the Scientific Review Committee for the Center for Clinical and Translational Science, and as a Steering Committee Member for the EQUIP-4-CRx quality improvement initiative from the Dept. of Family and Community Medicine.  Dr. Walsh gave several local presentations, including guest lectures and seminar presentations and participated in activities with the Mayor’s Alliance of Fayette County.  Dr. Walsh also received a joint appointment as Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences in the College of Pharmacy at UK.  With respect to service to the state, she collaborated with the Office of Drug Control Policy and the Kentucky Department for Behavioral Health, Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities to present two physician continuing medical education training events aimed at reducing drug diversion from clinical practice.  She served the state by working in collaboration with the State’s Attorneys Office to organize the first Kentucky Prescription Drug Summit to be held on the UK Campus.  At the national level, Dr. Walsh is appointed as a Special Government Employee of the Food and Drug Administration and serves in an advisory capacity for new drug approvals of analgesic formulations and risk management approaches for marketed drugs with abuse liability.  She served as a grant reviewer and an advisor for the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), an ad-hoc Scientific Advisory Board Member for the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, an editorial board member for two journals, an invited reviewer for manuscripts from more than a dozen national and international journals, and as Treasurer for the College on Problems of Drug Dependence. She serves as the Chair of a Safety Advisory Panel for Meda Pharmaceuticals.  She continued her service to the American Society of Addiction Medicine and the National Board of Medical Examiners as a test item writer for the physician Board exam in Addiction Medicine and is working with the American Pain Society to develop consensus safety guidelines for methadone.  On the international level, Dr. Walsh served as the Chair of the Improving Outcomes in the Treatment of Opioid Dependence (IOTOD) 10th annual meeting held in Madrid, Spain, which provided training for nearly 400 European physicians in good practices, where she also presented two invited addresses.  She is also the co-Chair of a European educational initiative, entitled “The Quality Patient Care Network,” which is developing and disseminating training for best practices with addiction physicians.  Now in its second year, Dr. Walsh has been involved in developing training materials and implementation of the network in France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain and Germany, and she will lead the trainings for the newest countries to join (Greece, Portugal, Austria and the Nordic Countries).  Dr. Walsh also gave invited addresses at the first Global Addiction Meeting held in Lisbon, Portugal and at the Recovery‐Oriented Addiction Medicine – Asia‐Pacific Seminars meeting in Bali, Indonesia.  Dr. Walsh continues to be well funded through extramural support from NIDA and has current funding through R01-supported projects as a principal investigator and co-investigator, current funding through the NIDA Clinical Trials Network, in which she established CDAR as a Research Coordinating Center of the Ohio Valley Node, and was selected to receive a supplement to an existing grant by her funding agency.  She had 6 peer-reviewed manuscripts published in respected journals.  With respect to education, Dr. Walsh continued to train students at the high school, pre and post-doctoral levels in the laboratory, gave guest lectures and participated in several CME activities for physicians and other health professionals.

Current Research Funding

Evaluation of Novel Treatments for Stimulant Dependence (9/1/06 – 8/31/09) National Institute on Drug Abuse R01 DA019433-A1.  Total Direct Costs: $1,427,427; First Year Direct Costs:  $468,787.
The primary aim of this project is to evaluate the ability of aripiprazole to alter intravenous cocaine self-administration and to alter cigarette smoking in human volunteers with smoking and cocaine use histories.

Evaluation of Atomoxetine for Cocaine Dependence:  A Pilot Trial (9/30/2006-10/1/2009)
National Institute on Drug Abuse R01 DA 22191-01.  Total Direct Costs: $750,000; First Year Direct Costs: $250,000.
The major goal of this study is to determine whether there are adequate safety and efficacy data for atomoxetine as a treatment for cocaine dependence in a small, double-blind, randomized clinical trial to warrant a larger-scale evaluation.

CSP# 1024, A Phase III, Randomized, Multi-Center, Double Blind, Placebo-Controlled Study of Safety and Efficacy of Lofexidine for Relief of Symptoms in Subjects Undergoing Inpatient Opiate Detoxification (7/01/2006—12/31/2007) WorldMeds, LLC.
The primary goal of this Phase-III project is to evaluate the efficacy of an alpha-2 adrenergic receptor agonist for the treatment of opioid dependence in an inpatient setting.

Representative Publications:

Nann-Vernotica E., Donny E.C., Bigelow G.E. and Walsh S.L. (2001) The D1/5 antagonist, ecopipam, fails to attenuate the subjective and physiological effects of cocaine.  Psychopharmacology, 155: 338-347.

Walsh S.L., Strain E.C., Abreu M.E. and Bigelow G.E. (2001) Enadoline, a selective kappa opioid agonist:  Comparison with butorphanol and hydromorphone in humans. Psychopharmacology, 157: 151-162.

Walsh S.L., Geter-Douglas B., Strain E.C. and Bigelow G.E. (2001) Enadoline and butorphanol: Evaluation of k agonists on cocaine pharmacodynamics and cocaine self-administration in humans.  Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, 299: 147-158.

Strain E.C., Walsh S.L. and Bigelow G.E. (2002) Blockade of hydromorphone effects by buprenorphine/naloxone and buprenorphine.  Psychopharmacology, 159:161-166.

Donny E.C., Walsh S.L., Bigelow G.E., Eisenberg T. and Stitzer M.L. (2002) High dose methadone produces superior opioid blockade and comparable withdrawal suppression to lower doses in opioid-dependent humans.  Psychopharmacology, 161: 202-212.

Lin, Shen-Nan, Walsh S.L., Moody D.E. and Foltz R.L. (2003) Detection and time course of cocaine N-oxide and other cocaine metabolites in human plasma by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS).  Analytical Chemistry, 75:  4335-4340.

Walsh S.L., Strain E.C. and Bigelow G.E. (2003) Evaluation of the effects of lofexidine and clonidine on naloxone-precipitated withdrawal in opioid-dependent humans.  Addiction, 98: 427-439.

Walsh S.L. and Eissenberg T. (2003) Buprenorphine: Extrapolating from clinical pharmacology to clinical practice. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 70 (2 Suppl): S13-27.

Donny E.C., Brasser S.M., Bigelow, G.E. Stitzer M.L. and Walsh, S.L. (2005) Methadone doses of 100 mg or greater are more effective than lower doses at suppressing heroin self-administration in opioid-dependent volunteers.  Addiction, 100: 1496-1509.

Donny E.C., Bigelow G.E. and Walsh S.L. (2006) Comparing the physiological and subjective effects of self-administered versus yoked cocaine in humans, Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 186: 544-552.

Jufer R. Walsh, S.L., Cone E.J. and Sampson-Cone A. (2006) Effect of repeated cocaine administration on detection times in oral fluid and urine. Journal of Analytical Toxicology, 30(7):  458-462.

Walsh S.L. and Strain E.C. (2006) Pharmacology of methadone.  In:  Treatment of Opioid Dependence , The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland, Strain E.C. and Stitzer M.L. (eds), pp. 59-76.

Preston K.L., Epstein, D.H., Schmitter J.P. and Walsh S.L. (2006) Abuse of Marketed Medications.  In: Drug Abuse Handbook 2nd Edition. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, Karch S.B. (ed).