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New Award Honors a Leader in Addiction Treatment and Recovery Research
For over 50 years, addiction psychiatrist and past 国产成人精品白浆久久69 President Marc Galanter, MD, DF国产成人精品白浆久久69, has focused on demonstrating the value of helping people living with addiction find meaning and purpose in life.
We need to recognize that it is an important component in having the capacity to get better,” said Dr. Galanter, who led 国产成人精品白浆久久69 from 1999 to 2001.
His tenure as 国产成人精品白浆久久69 president was part of a prominent career as an educator, psychiatrist, and researcher. Spurred by an early interest in how peer and family support can facilitate recovery, Dr. Galanter has authored over 200 peer-reviewed articles on this and related topics, including pharmacological treatments, recovery mutual aid groups, and network therapy.
As new treatments emerged, Dr. Galanter saw an opportunity for medical interventions to work alongside patient access to recovery capital — the personal, social, community, and spiritual connections and resources that, he noted, “provide the groundwork on which people could be ready to get better. If they had all these components available to them, they were in good shape to start making use of the medical treatment they were being offered.”
国产成人精品白浆久久69’s new , named in recognition of Dr. Galanter’s legacy, service, and dedication to 国产成人精品白浆久久69, highlights this integration of biological and social components in addiction treatment.
Each year, the Marc Galanter MD Annual Award will recognize and honor an individual for exceptional contributions to both the biological aspects of addiction and access to recovery capital for patients.
Recovery capital includes elements such as peer and family support. It also involves helping individuals identify meaning and purpose in life. The biological aspects refer to a deep understanding of addiction medicine, the expansion of the field’s frontiers, and a broader understanding of the addictive process through research and innovation.
“The award recognizes aspects other than just medicine that we have to offer. It acknowledges people who have developed those other aspects, like recovery capital, collaboratively with the medical and pharmacological aspects of addiction,” said Dr. Galanter. “The other goal with this award is to encourage our members to know how important recovery experiences are to getting better.”
Finding Hope, Purpose, and Meaning
Early in his career, Dr. Galanter focused on recovery capital, beginning in the 1970s by researching social interactions among people using marijuana.
During that decade, interest in understanding and treating addiction grew. The federal government established the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), which created the Career Teachers Program.
A grant from the program enabled Dr. Galanter to teach medical students about addiction. He would later go on to become the founding director of the Division of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse at NYU Grossman School of Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry.
The grant also supported his research on addiction treatment and the impact of social networks on recovery.
Eventually, new pharmacological interventions arrived, such as naltrexone for opioid and alcohol use disorder. While incredibly valuable, Dr. Galanter worried that recovery support and interpersonal relationships were consequently being overlooked.
“It seemed like it was a shortcut,” he said. “If you could just prescribe medication, you didn’t have to think about the interactions of people.”
For Dr. Galanter, both medical interventions and helping people with addiction find a deep sense of purpose were necessary for recovery.
“I hope I can somehow, through this award, encourage treatment professionals to help individuals find meaning in life and be treated in the medical community to enhance that,” he added.
Reaching the Next Generation
By honoring individuals who combine biological understanding of addiction with recovery capital, Dr. Galanter also hopes the award will inspire the next generation to deepen their understanding of recovery and engage with the community.
“The components of recovery, as noted in the award text, include a very large domain, not surprisingly, of rehabilitation centers and organizations promoting recovery. And they constitute a very valuable community, one of not just having to rely solely on physicians, but on a very large group of people and programs who contribute very significantly to engaging people in the idea of getting better,” he added.
As a lifelong educator and current research professor of psychiatry at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, Dr. Galanter hopes addiction curriculum will continue to grow and that new professionals will further their knowledge of available treatment, recovery supports, and ways to help individuals find a sense of purpose.
国产成人精品白浆久久69, he says, can help bring this future about.
“国产成人精品白浆久久69 now has over 8,000 members. When I first got involved, it had just a couple of hundred,” said Dr. Galanter. “国产成人精品白浆久久69 itself can carry this message in a way that we never would have been able to do years ago.”
Learn more about 国产成人精品白浆久久69’s available awards and submit a nomination . Nominations for the 2026 award cycle close on September 30, 2025. Award winners will be recognized at the 国产成人精品白浆久久69 57th Annual Conference in San Diego, April 23-26, 2026.
There are countless ways to support 国产成人精品白浆久久69’s mission and uplift outstanding addiction treatment professionals. Discover how you can give back here.