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The psychiatrist at the centre of the opioid crisis

Nora Volkow leads the world’s biggest funder of addiction research at a time when the United States is grappling with a devastating surge in drug use.
  1. Emiliano Rodríguez Mega

    1. Emiliano Rodríguez Mega is a science journalist in Mexico City.

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Nora Volkow sits on stones steps in front of a bunker-style door at the Trotsky Museum in Mexico City

Nora Volkow at her childhood home in Mexico City, now a museum to her great-grandfather, the Soviet revolutionary Leon Trotsky. Credit: Alejandra Rajal for Nature

On a cold Friday night in February 1995, addiction researcher Nora Volkow and her husband got into their car after a long day at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York. Ice had covered the trees and the roads, making them sparkle. But as the couple drove down a slope, the tyres lost their grip. The vehicle spun out of control. Volkow curled up to shield herself as an oncoming car crashed into her door.

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Nature 580, 178-181 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-00921-9

References

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