Bernard Le Foll

Dr. Bernard Le Foll is a Clinician Scientist specializing in addiction. He is Chair of Addiction Psychiatry within the Department of Psychiatry at University of Toronto. He is Head of the Translational Addiction Research Laboratory in the Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute. He is also the Lead of the Clinical Research Innovation Service and Head of the Alcohol Research and Treatment Clinic at CAMH. He is Professor at University of Toronto in the departments of Family and Community Medicine, Pharmacology, Psychiatry, Institute of Medical Sciences and Dalla Lana School of Public Health.

Dr. Le Foll's clinical activity is centred on drug addiction. He received specialized training in drug addiction and behavioral and cognitive therapy at Paris University in France. He has written treatment guidelines and has been leading multiple clinical trials. He obtained a PhD in pharmacology at INSERM and completed a post-doctoral Fellowship at the National Institutes of Health (NIDA-IRP).

The goal of his research is to improve treatment of drug addiction. For this purpose, various approaches are used such as clinical trials, laboratory experiments and multi-disciplinary basic research approaches. The goal is to develop novel therapeutic strategies in clinical populations.

He has received scientific prizes and awards from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, the National Institutes of Health, the French Academy of Medicine, the American College for Neuropsychopharmacology, the College on Problems on Drug Dependence, the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco, the Brain and Behavior Foundation, Pfizer, OPGRC, the Ontario Lung Association and the Heart and Stroke Foundation.

Dr. Le Foll also holds the following positions:

• Professor, Departments of Pharmacology and Toxicology
• Family and Community Medicine, Psychiatry, Institute of Medical Science, Dalla Lana School of Public Health
• Chair, Addiction Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto
• Head, Translational Addiction Research Laboratory, Campbell Institute, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH)
• Lead, Clinical Research Innovation Service, Addiction Division, CAMH
• Head, Alcohol Research and Treatment Clinic, CAMH. 

General Research Areas: Behavioral Pharmacology & Drug Addiction, Clinical Pharmacology; Neuropharmacology; Psychopharmacology; Pharmacogenetics

Translational Addiction Research Laboratory

The main goal of the Translational Addiction Research Laboratory is to improve the treatment and understanding of drug addiction. The research aims at linking discovery in basic science to clinical applications. The research program is currently covering various drugs of abuse (cannabis, opioid, tobacco and alcohol). The main approaches used in the laboratory are i) PET imaging approaches to uncover some of the neurotransmitters involved in drug addiction processes; ii) drug administration studies in the laboratory; iii) Randomized clinical trials. 

Alcohol Research and Treatment Clinic

As part of the Concurrent Outpatient Medical & Psychosocial Addiction Support Service of CAMH ,  the Alcohol Research and Treatment Clinic (ARTC) brings together an inter-professional team of physicians, nurses and specialized therapists to improve access to pharmacotherapies for the treatment of alcohol dependence. Led by Dr. Bernard Le Foll, the clinic also includes research and evaluation components to find new evidence-based treatment strategies that will inform delivery of care at CAMH, throughout the province and beyond. ARTC is currently using approved pharmacotherapies (disulfiram, naltrexone and acamprosate) and second lines therapies (gabapentin, topiramate and baclofen).

Research Synopsis

Dr. Le Foll received specialized training in drug addiction and behavioral and cognitive therapy at Paris University in France. He has written treatment guidelines and has been coordinator of clinical trials. He obtained a PhD in pharmacology at INSERM and completed a Fogarty Visiting Fellowship at the National Institutes of Health. He has received scientific prizes and awards from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, the National Institutes of Health, the French Academy of Medicine, the American College for Neuropsychopharmacology, the College on Problems on Drug Dependence, the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco, the Brain and Behavior Foundation, Pfizer, OPGRC, the Ontario Lung Association and the Heart and Stroke Foundation.

A large focus in the last few years has been to integrate research in the clinical settings and to lead multi-disciplinary research teams.

The main goal of the research is to improve treatment of drug addiction. For this purpose, several clinical trials have been implemented to test novel treatment interventions for various substance use disorders.

Several studies have been implemented to study the negative impact of cannabis (for ex, addictive potential, impact on driving abilities) and the possible positive impact (studying the medical potential of cannabis in various medical conditions).

The impact of substance use is also studied with basic research approaches (notably brain imaging) and epidemiological studies in large cohorts of subjects.

Honours and Awards

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2003             Early Career investigator Award of the College on Problems of Drug Dependence.
2003             Laureate of the French Academy of Medicine, France.
2004             Fellow Award for Research Excellence, NIH, Bethesda, MD.
2006             New Investigator Award of Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco 
2006             New Investigator Award of CIHR Training Program in Tobacco Use in Special Populations.
2013             Pfiasky Young Investigator Award, Canadian Society of Pharmacology and Therapeutics
2015            Member to American College of Neuropsychopharmacology

Grants

Dr Le Foll’s research is primarily coming from NIH, CIHR and various funding organizations. Current projects are covering cannabis, opioid, alcohol and tobacco.