Christina Gianoulakis, PhD, joined the Douglas Institute Research Centre in 1986. She has made breakthrough contributions to understanding the role of the endogenous opioid system in mediating, at least in part, some of the reinforcing effects of alcohol. These findings, along with those by other investigators, have provided support for the use of Naltrexone, a non-specific opioid receptor antagonist, as a treatment approved in the United States and Canada to prevent alcohol relapse by detoxified alcoholics.

Christina Gianoulakis and her research team are currently working to unravel the role of stress in promoting alcohol consumption, as well as relapse to drinking by abstinent alcoholics. Christina Gianoulakis and her team are also using in vivo microdialysis techniques to study various strains and lines of experimental animals that either prefer or avoid alcohol – the major objective being to elucidate the role of the endogenous opioid peptide systems in mediating some of the reinforcing effects of alcohol.