Campbell/Spillane Substance Use Research - Interview with Ted Cicero

Abstract

Theodore Cicero, Ph.D. was the innovator of the first post-marketing drug abuse surveillance program imposed by the FDA as a condition for the approval of tramadol in 1992. He served as the chairman of the advisory board which was charged with developing a comprehensive surveillance project that would detect abuse of tramadol in a timely fashion with a geographic precision down to the 5 digit postal zip code. This program evolved over time and has now emerged as one element of a much larger risk-management program: RADARS (Researched Abuse, Diversion and Addiction-Related Surveillance). From 1985-1988, Dr. Cicero also documented that paternal administration of opioids and/or alcohol influenced the development and maturation of their offspring. The only explanation for this phenomenon was that the function of sperm had in some way been affected. The most obvious possibility was that the expression of genes was affected in some way, and this was postulated by his group in 1988. Fifteen years later, it has been shown in several landmark studies that environmental toxins and drugs influence the methylation of DNA, a process which influences gene expression. This launched the new field of “epigenetics” and Dr. Cicero’s research in the late 1980s is uniformly cited as the original observations documenting epigenetic processes. He is presently actively re-engaging in this research and exploring the molecular genetics of this phenomenon. Dr. Cicero is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Source: Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. https://psychiatry.wustl.edu/people/theodore-cicero-phd/