Diploma in Psychology in 1973, PhD in 1981. 1973 - 1987 Director, Addiction Research Group, Max-Planck-Institut für Psychiatrie, Munich; 1973 - 2012 Scientific Director, IFT Institut für Therapieforschung, Munich, since then Chairman; 2002 - 2005 Visiting Professor, Universität Konstanz; since 2005 Professor, Technische Universität Dresden with a focus on addiction research; since 2018 Adjunct Professor in Addiction Psychiatry at Syddansk Universitet.
Main topics of research: aetiology, course and cessation of substance use disorders and pathological gambling, including vulnerability and risk factors; mediators and moderators of change processes in formal and informal interventions; treatment service system analyses, public health issues. Special interests in the interaction of individual, social and cultural factors for onset, course and cessation of substance use and gambling (disorders) and in the evaluation of national substance use and gambling policies.
State-licensed psychotherapist, member in scientific advisory boards and management boards of German and international associations in the field of addiction research; member of editorial boards of German and international scientific journals; Assistant Editor of SUCHT and of ADDICTION; Member of the Scientific Committee of EMCDDA (European Monitoring Centre of Drugs and Drug Addiction); Diotima Award of the German Federal Chamber of Psychotherapists for outstanding achievements in addiction research and treatment service improvements.
About 440 lectures and 455 publications.
