Progressing Towards Sex- and Gender-Informed Care in Alcohol Use Disorder: Status Quo and Future Directions
Location: Arrell Family Foundation Auditorium, 2nd Floor, 1025 Queen St West, Toronto + Virtually
Speaker: Dr. Bernd Lenz, Full Professor of Addiction Research, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University (Germany)
Deputy Head, Department of Addictive Behavior and Addiction Medicine
Head of the Research Group Integrative Neuroscience of Addictive Behaviors (INA)
Central Institute of Mental Health (CIMH)
Dr. Lenz’s scholarship centers on three intersecting themes: (1) how sex and gender shape the onset, course, and treatment response of addictive illnesses; (2) the use of virtual-reality technology to improve diagnosis and therapy; and (3) the long-overlooked needs of adults living with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. His recent work includes high-impact studies on sex-sensitive mental health care and hormone dynamics in alcohol use disorder (Lancet Psychiatry, 2025; American Journal of Psychiatry, 2024).
Beyond the lab, Dr. Lenz serves as Deputy Editor of the journal SUCHT, Co-Coordinator of the German Center for Mental Health working group on “Gender/Sex and Mental Health,” and is a Fellow of Heidelberg University’s Institute for Advanced Study. His contributions have been recognized with the Wilhelm-Feuerlein Research Award and several early-career prizes for excellence in addiction science.
Board-certified in psychiatry, psychotherapy, addiction medicine, and geriatrics, Dr. Lenz combines rigorous clinical expertise with innovative translational research to advance more precise, equitable care for people affected by substance use disorders worldwide.
Moderator: Dr. Svetlana Popova, Senior Scientist, Institute for Mental Health Policy Research at CAMH
Professor, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, at University of Toronto
Professor, Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, at University of Toronto
Dr. Popova is internationally recognized for her leadership in maternal substance use and child outcomes, with a particular focus on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. Dr. Popova has led global studies on epidemiology of FASD with the World Health Organization and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and national projects on Canada’s FASD and prenatal alcohol exposure surveillance and economic cost with the Public Health Agency of Canada. Her work continues to shape evidence-based policy and improve the lives of children and families worldwide.
Talk objectives:
- Learn how women and men differ in terms of problematic alcohol use and alcohol use disorder, related phenotypes, and negative consequences.
- Learn how this knowledge can be applied to treatments and the steps needed to develop sex- and gender-informed care for alcohol use disorder.
- Learn about more nuanced concepts of sex and gender that can be used in addiction research, as well as what is known about their role in alcohol use disorder.
Agenda:
1-1:45 pm EDT: Speaker presentation
1:45-2:00 pm EDT: Question and answer period
