Harvard Medical School Division on Addictions

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Debi A. LaPlante, Ph.D.
Associate Director, Division on Addictions
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School

Biographical Sketch

Debi LaPlante, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and the Associate Director of the Division on Addictions, Cambridge Health Alliance, a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School. She is involved in several emerging research projects including, but not limited to: (1) an NIAAA-funded multi-year longitudinal study, which uses the Composite International Diagnostic Interview, to examine the psychiatric comorbidity profiles of repeat driving under the influence of intoxicants (DUI) offenders, (2) state (Nevada) and federally funded (NIDA) randomized clinical trials of the Your First Step to Change guide for problem gambling, and (3) an NIMH-funded meta-analytic study to develop a strength of evidence treatment outcome matrix for behaviorally expressed addictions (e.g., problem gambling, compulsive shopping). She has also has been involved in DOA research, such as: (1) a comprehensive evaluation of the State of Iowa gambling treatment program (Shaffer, LaBrie, LaPlante, & Kidman, 2002; Shaffer, LaBrie, LaPlante, Kidman, & Donato, 2004), (2) the development of a standardized public health tool for estimating environmental exposure to behavioral health toxins, the Regional Index of Gambling Exposure (Shaffer, LaBrie, & LaPlante, 2004), (3) the development of a theoretical model that conceptualized addiction as a syndrome (Shaffer, LaPlante et al., 2004), and (4) analyzing and interpreting the behavioral and substance use correlated of gambling behavior in the first ever national sample of college students (LaBrie, Shaffer, LaPlante, & Wechsler, 2003; Nelson, LaBrie, LaPlante, Stanton, Shaffer, & Wechsler, in press).

Currently Dr. LaPlante is senior editor of the online research review, the BASIS (www.basisonline.org). The BASIS publishes weekly science reviews on the latest research studies of gambling, alcohol, tobacco, and drugs. Dr. LaPlante serves on the editorial board of Psychology of Addictive Behaviors and is an ad hoc reviewer for numerous other journals. Dr. LaPlante also has consulted for the Massachusetts Council on Compulsive Gambling in the development of a problem gambling self-change toolkit, Your First Step to Change, and Family Health Productions, Inc. in the development of a youth alcohol prevention video toolkit, Alcohol: True Stories. Dr. LaPlante played a lead role in the development of the EMERGE (Executive, Management and Employee Responsible Gaming Education) program.

One of Dr. LaPlante's primary research interests is on addiction in special populations. Her work in this area has revealed the importance of considering sociodemographics in the study of addiction. For example, in published studies she and her colleagues have shown that comprehensive sociodemographic profiles explain prototypically gendered phenomena, such as the "telescoping effect" (i.e., the tendency for women to start addictive behavior later in life, but progress more rapidly to a full blown addictive disorder and treatment seeking) (Nelson, LaPlante, LaBrie, & Shaffer, in press) and gravitation towards one object of addiction versus another (e.g., the tendency for women who have problems with gambling to play slot machines versus poker) better than gender alone (LaPlante, Nelson, LaBrie, & Shaffer, 2006). Furthermore, her research has shown that women in treatment for addictive behavior (i.e., repeat DUI offenders) have more complicated and extensive psychiatric histories than men (LaPlante, Nelson, Odegaard, LaBrie, & Shaffer, under review). This indicates that it might take more problems for women to reach the point of treatment and that in many cases their addictive behavior might be secondary to other psychiatric disorders.

Selected Publications

In Press

LaPlante, D. A., Nelson, S. E., LaBrie, R. A., & Shaffer, H. J. (In Press). The relationships among disordered gambling, type of gambling, and gambling involvement in the British Gambling Prevalence Survey 2007. European Journal of Public Health.
Martin, R. J., Usdan, S., Nelson, S. E., Umstattd, R., LaPlante, D. A., Perko, M., & Shaffer, H. J. (In Press). Using the theory of planned behavior to predict gambling behavior. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors.

2010

LaPlante, D. A., Gray, H. M., Bosworth, L. B., & Shaffer, H. J. (2010). Thirty years of lottery public health research: Methodological strategies and trends. Journal of Gambling Studies, 26, 301-329.
Shaffer, H. J., Peller, A., J., LaPlante, D. A., Nelson, S. E., & LaBrie, R. A. (2010). Toward a paradigm shift in Internet gambling research: From opinion and self-report to actual behavior. Addiction Research & Theory, 18(3), 270-283.

2009

LaPlante, D. A., Nelson, S. E., LaBrie, R. A., and Shaffer, H. J. (2009). Disordered gambling, type of gambling and gambling involvement in the British Gambling Prevalence Survey 2007. European Journal of Public Health: Advance Access. DOI:10.1093/eurpub/ckp177.
Laplante, D. A., Kleschinsky, J. H., LaBrie, R. A., Nelson, S. E., & Shaffer, H. J. (2009). Sitting at the virtual poker table: A prospective epidemiological study of actual Internet poker gambling behavior. Computers in Human Behavior, 25(3), 711-717.

2008

LaPlante, D. A., Nelson, S. E., Odegaard, S. S., LaBrie, R. A., & Shaffer, H. J. (2008). Substance and psychiatric disorders among men and women repeat driving under the influence offenders who accept a treatment-sentencing option. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 69(2), 209-217.

2007

LaBrie, R. A., LaPlante, D. A., Peller, A. J., Christensen, D. E., Greenwood, K. L., Straus, J. H., et al. (2007). The interdependence of behavioral and somatic health: implications for conceptualizing health, planning treatment, and measuring outcomes. International Journal of Integrated Care, 7, 1-11.
LaBrie, R. A., Nelson, S. E., LaPlante, D. A., Peller, A., Caro, G., & Shaffer, H. J. (2007). Missouri Casino self-excluders: Distributions across time and space. Journal of Gambling Studies, 23(2), 231-243.
LaPlante, DA & Shaffer, H. J. (2007). Understanding the influence of gambling opportunities: Expanding exposure models to include adaptation. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 77, 616-623.
Nelson, S. E., LaPlante, D. A., Peller, A., LaBrie, R. A., Caro, G., & Shaffer, H. J. (2007). Implementation of a computerized psychiatric assessment tool at a DUI treatment facility: A case example. Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, (34), 489-493.
Nelson, T., LaBrie, R. A., LaPlante, D. A., Stanton, M., Shaffer, H. J., & Wechsler, H. (2007). Sports betting and other gambling in athletes, fans, and other college students. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 78(4), 271-283.

2005 - 2006

LaPlante D. A., Nelson S. E., LaBrie R. A., & Shaffer H. J. (2006). Men & women playing games: Gender and the gambling preferences of Iowa gambling treatment program participants. Journal of Gambling Studies, 22(1), 65-80.
Nelson, S. E., LaPlante, D. A., LaBrie, R. A., & Shaffer, H. J. (2006). The proxy effect: Gender and gambling problem trajectories of Iowa Gambling Treatment Program participants. Journal of Gambling Studies, 22(2), 221-240.
Shaffer, H. J., LaBrie, R. A., LaPlante, D. A., Kidman, R. C., & Donato, A. N. (2005). The Iowa gambling treatment program: Treatment outcomes for a follow-up sample. Journal of Gambling Studies, 21(1), 59-71.
Shaffer, H. J., Donato, A. N., LaBrie, R. A., Kidman, R. C., & LaPlante, D. A. (2005). The epidemiology of college alcohol and gambling policies. Journal of Harm Reduction, 2(1), 1.

2003 - 2004

Shaffer, H. J., LaBrie, R., & LaPlante, D. (2004). Laying the foundation for quantifying regional exposure to social phenomena: Considering the case of legalized gambling as a public health toxin. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 18(1), 40-48.
Shaffer, H. J., LaBrie, R. A., LaPlante, D. A., Nelson, S. E., & Stanton, M. V. (2004). The road less traveled: Moving from distribution to determinants in the study of gambling epidemiology. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 49(8), 504-516.
Shaffer, H. J., LaPlante, D. A., LaBrie, R. A., Kidman, R. C., Donato, A. N., & Stanton, M. V. (2004). Toward a syndrome model of addiction: Multiple expressions, common etiology. Harvard Review of Psychiatry, 12(6), 367-374.
LaPlante, D. A., & Ambady, N. (2003). On how things are said: Voice tone, voice intensity, verbal content, and perceptions of politeness. Journal of Language and Social Psychology. 22(4), 434-441.
LaBrie, R. A., Shaffer, H. J., LaPlante, D. A., & Wechsler, H. (2003). Correlates of college student gambling in the United States. Journal of American College Health, 52(2), 53-62.

2002 and earlier

LaPlante, D. A., & Ambady, N. (2002). Saying it like it isn't: Responding to mixed messages from men and women in the workplace. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 32(12), 2435-2457.4
Ambady, N., LaPlante, D. A., Nguyen, T., Rosenthal, R., Chaumeton, N., & Levinson, W. (2002). Surgeons' tone of voice: A clue to malpractice history. Surgery, 132(1), 5-9.
LaPlante, D. A., & Ambady, N. (2000). Multiple message: Facial recognition advantage for compound expressions. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, (24), 211-224.

Reviews/Chapters/Editorials

Shaffer, H. J., & LaPlante, D. A. (2005). Treating gambling disorders. In: GA Marlatt & D Donovan (Eds.), Relapse Prevention. New York: Guilford.
LaPlante, D.A., & Shaffer, H. J. (2002). Evaluating disordered gambling; Screening, assessment, and diagnosis. Responsible Gaming Quarterly.
Shaffer, H. J., & LaPlante, D. A. (2002). Recovering from pathological gambling. Responsible Gaming Quarterly.
Ambady, N., LaPlante, D. A., & Johnson, E. (2001). Thin slice judgments as a measure of interpersonal sensitivity. In: J Hall & F Bernieri (Eds.), Interpersonal Sensitivity: Measurement and Applications. New Jersey: Erlbaum.

Books, Monographs, and Textbooks

Shaffer, H. J., LaBrie, R. A., LaPlante, D. A., & Kidman, R. C. (2002). The Iowa Department of Public Health Gambling Treatment Service: Four years of evidence. In: Final Report. Boston, MA: Harvard Medical School, Division on Addictions; 2002 Jan. Report No.: 101105-200. (Sponsored by the State of Iowa Department of Public Health.)
Shaffer, H. J., LaBrie, R. A., LaPlante, D. A., Kidman, R. C., & Donato, A. N. (2003). Evaluating the promise of an alcohol education program: Alcohol: True Stories. In: Final Report. Boston, MA: Harvard Medical School, Division on Addictions. (Sponsored by Family Health Productions and the Carlisle Foundation.)
Shaffer, H. J., LaBrie, R. A., Caro, G., LaPlante, D. A., & Nelson, S. E. (2004). Disordered gambling in Missouri: Regional differences in the need for treatment. In: Final Report. Boston, MA: Harvard Medical School, Division on Addictions. (Sponsored by the Missouri Port Authority.)
Shaffer, H. J., LaBrie, R. A., LaPlante, D. A., Kidman, R. C., & Nelson, S. E. (2005). The Iowa Gambling Treatment Program evaluation services project: Follow-up study. In: Final Report. Boston, MA: Harvard Medical School, Division on Addictions; 2005 Jan. Report No.: 20305-200. (Sponsored by the State of Iowa Department of Public Health.) (Sponsored by the Missouri Port Authority.)

Reports

LaPlante, D. A., Kleschinsky, J. H., LaBrie, R. A., & Shaffer, H. J. (2009). Play Responsibly Independent Measurement & Evaluation (PRIME): Venetian & Palazzo, Las Vegas. Boston, MA: Division on Addictions, Cambridge Health Alliance, a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School.
Shaffer, H. J., LaBrie, R. A., LaPlante, D. A., Kidman, R. C., & Nelson, S. E. (2004). The Iowa Department of Public Health Gambling Treatment Services: Follow-up study (Technical Report #20304-200). Boston: Harvard Medical School.
Shaffer, H. J., LaBrie, R. A., LaPlante, D. A., & Nelson, S. B. (2004). Disordered gambling in Missouri: Regional differences in the need for treatment. Phase I Report prepared for: The Greater Kansas City Community Foundation in partial fulfillment of the research grant “Evaluation Services with Regard to the Regional Impact of Compulsive Gambling” supported by the Port Authority Problem Gambling Fund.
Shaffer, H. J., LaBrie, R. A., LaPlante, D. A., & Kidman, R. C. (2002). The Iowa Department of Public Health Gambling Treatment Services: Four years of evidence (Technical Report #101102-200). Boston: Harvard Medical School.