(Hutchison, Kent Edward - 2020) -- Distinguished Research Lectureship
Overview
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Kent Hutchison, adjunct professor of psychology and neuroscience at CU Boulder, was recently appointed to a faculty position at the Anschutz Medical Campus where he is a professor of psychiatry in the University of Colorado School of Medicine.
Hutchison has been an NIH-funded scientist for 20 years and has published numerous papers in the area of substance use. In recent years, he served on the National Academy of Sciences committee that reviewed the effects of cannabis on health and published a summary report in 2017.
Hutchison is the principal investigator or co-investigator on four NIH-funded studies that examine the effects of cannabis products–such as flower, edibles and concentrates–purchased in the state of Colorado. Specifically, the studies are designed to compare the effects of cannabidiol (CBD)-only, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) combined with CBD, or THC-only on cognitive outcomes, anxiety, opiate use, and pain, in patient populations using a mobile pharmacology lab.
The mobile lab allows for the assessment of blood levels of THC and CBD and a test of whether blood levels of these cannabinoids predict the effects of cannabis on key outcomes including reductions in pain and opiate use.
Hutchison is working to establish a National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Center of Excellence, spanning the Anschutz and Boulder campuses, to facilitate research on the health effects of cannabis across the lifespan.
