Mustafa al'Absi

About

Dr. Mustafa al’Absi is a Professor of Behavioral Medicine and holds the Max E. and Mary LaDue Pickworth Chair at the University of Minnesota Medical School. He serves as the director of the Behavioral Medicine Laboratories at both the Duluth and Minneapolis campuses and is the Director of the Duluth Global Health Research Institute (DGHRI). His academic background includes undergraduate studies at Cairo University and a doctorate from the University of Oklahoma in biological and clinical psychology, specializing in behavioral medicine and psychophysiology. Dr. al’Absi founded the Behavioral Medicine Laboratories in 1998 to investigate the biobehavioral mechanisms linking stress, trauma, and early adversity to addiction, mental health conditions, and appetite regulation, with the goal of developing tailored interventions. His research integrates laboratory, clinical, and real-world methods, focusing on the biological and psychophysiological effects of stress on addictive behaviors and mental health. He has made significant contributions to understanding stress response mechanisms, including the role of endogenous opioids and the endocannabinoid system, and has pioneered the development of high-tech, unobtrusive methods for real-time stress and substance use assessment. His work has been funded by multiple national grants, and he has received numerous honors for his research, including awards from NIDA, AHA, and the American Psychosomatic Society. Dr. al’Absi has authored over…

Selected publications

• Neurobiological mechanisms of early life adversity, blunted stress reactivity and risk for addiction

  Neuropharmacology · 2021-03-10 · 75 citations

  reviewOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Stress and pain: modality-specific opioid mediation of stress-induced analgesia

  Journal of Neural Transmission · 2021-08-17 · 41 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Biobehavioral and affective stress responses during nicotine withdrawal: Influence of regular cannabis co-use

  Psychopharmacology · 2023-10-28 · 6 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• World addiction medicine reports: formation of the International Society of Addiction Medicine Global Expert Network (ISAM-GEN) and its global surveys

  Frontiers in Psychiatry · 2024-03-11 · 5 citations

  articleOpen access

  Addiction medicine is a dynamic field that encompasses clinical practice and research in the context of societal, economic, and cultural factors at the local, national, regional, and global levels. This field has evolved profoundly during the past decades in terms of scopes and activities with the contribution of addiction medicine scientists and professionals globally. The dynamic nature of drug addiction at the global level has resulted in a crucial need for developing an international collabo…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Patterns of adaptation to stress cardiovascular responses in smokers during ad libitum smoking and withdrawal

  Psychophysiology · 2024-11-05 · 4 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  There is considerable evidence documenting associations between tobacco smoking, including initiation, maintenance, and relapse of addiction, with diminished cardiovascular responses to acute psychological stress. However, less is known about how smokers respond to repeated stress across time. The current study examined patterns of cardiovascular reactivity and adaptation to recurrent stress among 24-h abstinence smokers, smokers who continued to smoke at their normal rate, and non-smokers. Smok…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Awards & honors

• ABMR Neal E. Miller Award
• American Psychosomatic Society Herbert Weiner Award
• NIDA Award of Excellence in Collaborative Research
• Hans Selye Lectureship from WASAD

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