Dr Paolo Deluca

Dr Paolo Deluca is Reader in Addiction Research with a background in cognitive and developmental psychology, and over twenty-year experience in the addiction field. 

Paolo studied Psychology at the University of Padua, Italy, and completed his PhD on cognitive development at Lancaster University UK in 2000. He moved to London to work at the Institute of Psychiatry in 2001, then moved to St George’s University of London. He rejoined the Institute of Psychiatry in 2007. 

Throughout his time at the IoPPN he has been working on numerous national and international projects. He was the programme manager of the National Alcohol Screening and Brief Intervention Research Programme for Sensible drinking for adult (SIPS) and adolescents (SIPS jr). He is deputy lead for the South London NIHR CLAHRC Alcohol Theme. 

He was also involved with the EC funded AMPHORA project on Early diagnosis and treatment, the ODHIN project on Optimizing delivery of health care interventions and the MRC funded pilot study of Assertive Community Treatment in Alcohol Dependence (ACTAD). 

He was lead researcher and co-principal investigator on the EU funded Psychonaut 2002 and Psychonaut EWS projects on illicit drug information and availability of “legal highs” on the Internet which have developed a web monitoring system for novel psychoactive substances (NPS). Recently, he has been awarded grants from the European Commission which look at the Internet and other ICTs to deliver prevention services addressing the use of novel compounds in vulnerable individuals (ReDNet, 2010-2012), the marketing strategies of legal highs (ALICE RAP, 2011-2016), the misuse of codeine (CODEMISUSED 2013-2017) and the real time monitoring of the availability and distribution of NPS over the Internet (CASSANDRA 2015-2017). 

He has particular expertise in conducting and evaluating health service and public health research. He also has a specific interest in Information Technologies and their roles on substance misuse prevention and treatment (eHealth). Paolo Deluca has also extensive expertise on national and international clinical trial management, intervention development, delivery and evaluation. 

Research Interests

• Alcohol. 
• New Psychoactive Substances (Legal Highs).  
• Prescription drugs.  
• Screening & Brief Intervention.  
• Electronic Intervention. 
• eHealth & mHealth.  
• Transdermal Alcohol Monitoring. 

Research Groups

Addictions Clinical Academic Group 

Expertise and Public Engagement

Paolo collaborated with the Science Gallery London on the exhibition “HOOKED: When Want Becomes Need!” From gambling to gaming, smartphones to social media, HOOKED questions what makes us as humans vulnerable to addiction and considers the underlying factors and routes to recovery. 

As part of Hooked, he participated as a panellist at an evening debate with young people on Internet based Addiction (10/10/18).