Licensed Clinical Psychologist
Professor of Family Medicine
Professor of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences
Director, UCLA Center for HIV Identification, Prevention, and Treatment Services (CHIPTS)
http://chipts.ucla.edu/people/steve-shoptaw/
From the UCLA Center for World Health’s 2017-18 Annual Report:
Steven Shoptaw, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist, Professor in the UCLA Departments of Family Medicine and Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, and Director of the UCLA Center for HIV Identification, Prevention, and Treatment Services (CHIPTS). Dr. Shoptaw, through UCLA’s Center for Behavioral and Addiction Medicine (CBAM), has partnered with the University of Cape Town to address substance use and abuse in South Africa. Through funding from the NIH, the team was able to enroll 30 individuals who are dependent on methamphetamine and who also are engaged in a contingency management program that uses positive reinforcement to change behavior. By studying functional MRI brain imaging of this cohort, the goal is to understand and describe the neurobiological mechanisms of action underpinning contingency management. Data analysis now is underway, and results are being prepared for publication.
CBAM’s work in Cape Town also is expanding, with new projects in development that focus on smoking and HIV, a problem of significant relevance given that 74 percent of people living with HIV in South Africa are known to smoke cigarettes.