Study
on Substance Use

Dr. Gerhard Gmel, Principal Investigator

Comprehensive list of publications

Gerhard Gmel is head of the epidemiology and statistics section at non-governmental, non-profit organization Addiction Switzerland, and senior researcher at the Alcohol Treatment Center of the University Hospital Lausanne, Switzerland. In addition to his positions in Switzerland, he is affiliate scientist at the Center for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Canada, and visiting professor at the University of the West of England, Bristol, United Kingdom. His main research interest is on substance use epidemiology, particularly alcohol use. He holds leading roles in many multinational research projects. He is also advisor of the WHO as regards alcohol epidemiology and policy and collaborates with the WHO on the estimation of the Global Burden of Disease stemming from alcohol use. He is Senior Editor of the leading journal in the field Addiction.

 

PD Dr. Meichun Mohler-Kuo, Co-Principal Investigator

Meichun Mohler-Kuo is currently the head of the unit ´mental health and social epidemiology´ and lecturer (Private Docent) at Institute of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Prevention, University of Zurich. She was trained as a social and psychiatric epidemiologist at the Harvard School of Public Health. She has extensive training and experiences in conducting large epidemiological studies and data analyses. She has led many research projects relating to substance use among adolescents and young adults, child and adolescents’ health and mental health. Her main research interest has been social and environmental determinants of health and social behaviors among children and young adults.

 

Jacques Cornuz, MD, Co- Principal Investigator

Jacques Cornuz, MD, internal medicine board certified, is currently full Professor of Medicine at the Lausanne University hospital Switzerland, and medical chief at the Department of ambulatory care and community medicine in Lausanne. He got a Master of Public Health at Harvard University and has been initially trained in political sciences. He is in charge of the pre-graduate and post-graduate training in smoking and smoking cessation. He is vice-president of the Swiss Federal for smoking prevention commission and an active member of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco.

 

Jean-Bernard Daeppen, MD, Co- Principal Investigator

Pr. Daeppen is the head of the Alcohol Treatment Centre, a clinical and research unit of the Lausanne University Hospital. He also is associate Professor at Lausanne University Medical school. His research activity focuses on early identification and treatment of alcohol use disorders in medical patients both in primary care and general hospital. He recently completed trials evaluating the efficacy of brief motivational intervention in hospital emergency department and among conscripts at the Swiss army. His research also focuses on the efficacy of training medical students and residents to motivational interviewing. He is currently involved in the C-SURF cohort study and is the principal investigator of a cohort of 800 alcoholic patients. His research conducted to over 70 publications in peer reviewed journals. He is Chief Editor of "Alcoologie et Addictologie" and member of the editorial boards of "Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs", "Addiction Science and Clinical Practice" and "Revue Médicale Suisse".

 

Joan-Carles Surís, MD, Ph.D., Co- Principal Investigator

Joan-Carles Suris is Senior Lecturer in Adolescent Health and head of the  Research Group in Adolescent Health at the Lausanne University Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine (IUMSP). His research focuses mainly on sexual behavior, lifestyles and chronic illness in adolescence and young adulthood.

 

Mohamed Faouzi, Ph.D., Scientific Collaborator

Mohamed Faouzi works as a statistician as well as a research project manager at the University Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine (IUMSP) at the Lausanne University  Hospital. In addition to supervising and carrying out statistical analysis in the various research projects of the Alcohol Center at the Lausanne University Hospital, he works to develop new methodologies in modelling and analyzing data about the evolution of alcohol consumption as well as data of brief interventions (BI).

 

Nicolas Bertholet, MD, M.Sc., Scientific Collaborator

Nicolas Bertholet is chef de clinique in Prevention and Public Health and Psychiatry at the Alcohol Treatment Center, Lausanne University Hospital, Switzerland. His recent work focused on brief interventions and behavior change among persons with unhealthy alcohol use. His research focuses on alcohol use, brief motivational interventions, the processes of change involved in addiction and the use of new technologies in the delivery of secondary prevention interventions. He is currently an Associate Editor of www.aodhealth.org.

 

Jacques Gaume, Ph.D., Scientific Collaborator

Jacques Gaume is a former research fellow at the Alcohol Treatment Center, Lausanne University Hospital, and is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Behavioral & Social Sciences at the Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies, Brown University, USA. His recent work focused on brief motivational intervention efficacy and underlying mechanisms in particular populations (emergency room, young people). His research interests comprised alcohol behavioral treatment mechansims, the mechanisms of behavior change, and the evolution of alcohol and substance use in young people.

 

Petra Dermota, M.Sc., Scientific Collaborator

Petra Dermota works as a Scientific Collaborator in mental health and social epidemiology at the Institute of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Prevention, University of Zurich. Since she graduated in Psychology at the University of Zürich, she has worked on research projects in public health, neurosciences and market research. Her research now focuses on comparing the health literacy of men with high, respectively low substance consumption or abstinence. She also is the contact person for German-speaking participants to the C-SURF study.

 

Joseph Studer, Ph.D, Scientific Collaborator

Graduated in psychology at the University of Lausanne, Joseph Studer defended his doctoral work at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences at the University of Geneva. His thesis focused on the development of emotion – cognition interaction across the adult lifespan. Since July 2011 he works as a Scientific Collaborator for the C-SURF study. His current research focuses on methodological aspects (i.e. non-response bias, etc.) as well as on psychological aspects associated with substance use. 

 

Stéphanie Baggio, Ph.D., Scientific Collaborator

Following her Master degree in applied statistics in social sciences and her Ph.D. work in social and environmental psychology, Stéphanie Baggio is interested in the question of risks of all sorts (natural disasters, social risk in business, risks taken by individuals) as well as in associated risk factors and protective factors. Her research currently focuses on cyberaddiction and substance use patterns.

 

Michelle Dey, Ph.D., Scientific collaborator

Michelle Dey studied Psychology and defended her Ph.D. thesis at the University of Zürich on "health and quality of life in children with psychological problems". Since August 2012, her post-doctoral research focuses on mental health and social epidemiology at the Institute of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Prevention, University of Zurich. Her current research with C-SURF focuses on the cultural differences with regard to substance use, as well as on risk behaviors and health related quality of life.

 

Simon Foster, Ph.D., Scientific collaborator and project coordinator for German-speaking Switzerland

Following his Master degree in Psychology at the Universtiy of Bern, Simon Foster achieved his doctoral work at the ETH in Zürich on patient handover and patient safety at hospital. After that he worked as a  post-doc on mental health and social epidemiology at the University of Zurich. His current research with C-SURF focuses on alcool consumption related to cantonal legislations and different personality traits. He is also the project coordinator for German-speaking Switzerland.

 

Natalia Estévez, Ph.D., Scientific collaborator

Natalia Estévez has studied psychology and has finished her Ph.D. at the university of Zürich. Her research has focused namely on the investigation of therapy induced brain reorganization in stroke patients. Since october 2012, her post-doctoral work focuses on mental health and social epidemiology at the Institute of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Prevention, University of Zurich. Her current research in the C-SURF study focuses on the upcoming of the attention deficit syndrome and hyperactivity, as well as related factors.

 

Stéphane Deline, Ph.D., Scientific Collaborator

Following his Ph.D. work in differential psychology at the University of Rennes, Stéphane Deline is interested in the question of individual differences and psychological and environmental factors which influence addictive behaviours and their evolution. His current research focuses on nonmedical use of prescription stimulants.

 

Alexandra A. N'goran MD, MPH, Scientific Collaborator

Graduated as a Medical Doctor, Alexandra N'Goran studied Epidemiology at the University of Paris XI and has worked at the INSERM-U687 for the project Eurostress, focusing on psychosocial factors related to work situations. She also worked as a consultant epidemiologist at Epicentre in Paris in various programs on epidemics, watching and assessing mortality rates and vaccination. Her area of activities is wide as well as her fieldwork experience, namely in the South. She currently works with the C-SURF team as a scientific collaborator, dedicating herself to making best use of the data and publishing articles.

 

Dr. Yves Henchoz, Scientific Collaborator

Following his Ph.D. work in Life Sciences in the Faculty of Biology and Medicine at the University of Lausanne, Yves Henchoz investigated physical activity in various populations. Since he joined the C-SURF team in July 2013, his research has focused on physical activity and psychological and environmental factors related to substance use.

 

Ansgar Rougemont-Bücking, MD; scientific collaborator

Ansgar Rougemont-Bücking, is a psychiatrist and a researcher at the Alcohol Treatment Center, Lausanne University Hospital, Switzerland.  He worked in several research projects and completed a fellowship in the PTSD research group of the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University in Boston, USA.  He is interested in the many interactions between factors of stress and the use of psychoactive substances, and his work focuses on the mechanisms of implicit learning and memory which play a crucial role in many clinical manifestations of post-traumatic stress disorders and addictive disorders.

 

Simon Marmet, lic. phil., Scientific Collaborator

After his graduation in psychology at the University of Berne, he did research about substance use and addiction epidemiology for more than 5 years at Addiction Switzerland in Lausanne. Since 2017, he works for the C-Surf project. His main research interests are the interplay between behavioural addictions, substance use disorders and mental health problems.

 

Matthias Wicki, lic. phil., Scientific collaborator

Matthias Wicki graduated in psychology at the University of Bern and worked as a researcher and project manager at Addiction Switzerland in Lausanne. Since becoming a member of the C-SURF team in 2019, his research focussed on sexual orientation and suicidality in the context of substance use and behavioural addictions.

 

Céline Gachoud Gremaud, MSc ETH, project coordinator

After graduating from the ETH in Zurich, Celine Gremaud worked in the field of strategy for a management consulting firm. In November 2015 she joined the C-SURF team as a project coordinator. She is in charge of project management and database optimization. She is also responsible for the measures to increase participation rate as well as for hiring and coaching the research assistants of the project.

 

Charlotte Eidenbenz, M.A., former project coordinator

Since she graduated at the University of Lausanne in Arts, Charlotte Eidenbenz is interested in project management in various areas as well as in public health. She has coordinated the C-SURF research study since its launch in 2010 and until 2015, and also was the data manager. She speaks French, English and German fluently.