Dr. Jeffrey Wardell

Dr. Jeffrey Wardell is an Independent Scientist with the Institute for Mental Health Policy Research at the CAMH. He is also an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at University of Toronto. Dr. Wardell received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the State University of New York at Buffalo and is a licensed Clinical Psychologist. He completed his clinical residency in the outpatient addiction service at CAMH, where he focused on the assessment and treatment of clients with alcohol use disorders. He subsequently completed a postdoctoral fellowship at CAMH, for which he received funding from Canadian Institutes of Health Research to study behavioural risk factors for alcohol use disorder using novel human laboratory methods. 

Areas of Research

Dr. Wardell’s research broadly focuses on personality and psychosocial determinants of addictive behaviour, with a focus on the developmental context of young adulthood. His research applies methods such as laboratory alcohol administration and real-time assessment using mobile devices to study biopsychosocial processes that occur during substance use episodes. Dr. Wardell also has expertise in longitudinal data analysis, and has published on the prospective associations between risk factors (e.g., impulsivity, stress) and substance use outcomes in both young adults and clinical populations (e.g., people living with HIV). In addition, Dr. Wardell is interested in the determinants and consequences of cannabis and alcohol co-use, and is currently studying the relationship between cannabis use and alcohol use among heavy drinking young adults. His work seeks to apply the knowledge gained from these studies to inform interventions that target risk factors for substance use.