Bernard Le Foll

Research Synopsis

Dr. Le Foll received specialized training in drug addiction and behavioral and cognitive therapy at Paris University in France. He has written treatment guidelines and has been coordinator of clinical trials. He obtained a PhD in pharmacology at INSERM and completed a Post-doctoral Fellowship at the National Institutes of Health. He has received scientific prizes and awards from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, the National Institutes of Health, the French Academy of Medicine, the American College for Neuropsychopharmacology, the College on Problems on Drug Dependence, the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco, the Brain and Behavior Foundation, Pfizer, OPGRC, the Ontario Lung Association and the Heart and Stroke Foundation. 

A large focus in the last few years has been to integrate research in the clinical settings and to lead multi-disciplinary research teams.

The main goal of the research is to improve treatment of drug addiction. For this purpose, several clinical trials and lab-based studies have been implemented to test novel treatment interventions for various substance use disorders. Various drugs of abuse (cannabis, alcohol, tobacco, opiates) are being studied.

Several studies have been implemented to study the negative impact of cannabis (for ex, addictive potential, impact on driving abilities) and the possible positive impact (studying the medical potential of cannabis).

The impact of substance use is also studied with basic research approaches (notably brain imaging) and epidemiological studies in large cohorts of subjects.