Helen M. Pettinati, PhD, is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and the Director of the Treatment Research Division at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Her current research focuses on novel strategies for treating alcohol and drug dependence, with a particular focus in the area of pharmacotherapy. She primarily receives grant support from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Both are part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Dr. Pettinati is currently the Director of a NIDA-funded P50 Medication Development Center entitled: Innovative Approaches for Cocaine Pharmacotherapy. She also was a Principal Investigator on one of the largest national pharmacotherapy trials published to date for treating alcoholism, the COMBINE study, sponsored by NIAAA. Dr. Pettinati has been a Fellow in the American Psychological Association since 2000. From 2000 to 2001 she was an Advisor both to the American Psychiatric Association DSM-IV Study Group on Substance Abuse and to the Initiative on Managing Alcohol Problems in Primary Care Settings within the Department of Health and Human Services. Author of over 150 scientific papers, books and book chapters, Dr. Pettinati is the lead Editor of the COMBINE Methods Supplement published by the Journal of Studies on Alcohol in 2005, and the lead author of the Medical Management manual published by the NIAAA/NIH in 2004. The Medical Management manual provides some structured guidance to medical practitioners who prescribe pharmacotherapy to alcohol dependent patients. Since 1987, Dr. Pettinati has been listed in the Who’s Who in Emerging Leaders in America, and she was elected into the John Morgan Society at the University of Pennsylvania in 2002. Dr. Pettinati received her advanced degree from the Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1979 after graduating summa cum laude from Drexel University in 1973. | 
