Among Americans, substance dependence is the psychiatric disorder that
takes the most lives.
Our mission is to reduce mortality and morbidity – death, disease, and suffering – from drugs (including alcohol and tobacco) in Colorado and nationally, through treatment, research, and education.
Division Director: Professor Thomas J. Crowley, M.D.
Some may still think of psychiatry as lying on a couch, talking to a doctor who seldom answers, but that image is now a very small part of the story. Psychiatry is the medical discipline that studies and treats disorders of human behavior, such as schizophrenia, major depressive disorder, and substance dependence, taking into account biological and environmental causes of those disorders. Modern psychiatry uses such tools as molecular genetics, brain imaging, epidemiology, neuropharmacology, and social sciences to understand and treat these often-fatal disorders.
