Kirsten Elin Smith, MSW, PhD

After earning my Master’s degree in clinical social work from the University of Kentucky and Ph.D. from the University of Louisville, I completed a 4-year postdoctoral training fellowship at the National Institute on Drug Abuse Intramural Research Program (NIDA IRP). At NIDA’s Translational Addiction Medicine Branch, I received extensive training working on a human laboratory study examining the withdrawal-suppressing effects of an experimental mu opioid agonist medication. I also began investigating real-world instances of kratom use. I completed the first national ecological momentary assessment study of daily kratom use and an associated laboratory pilot substudy on the acute effects of commercial kratom products among adults who use regularly. I am continuing my kratom research to include safety/tolerability and pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic studies, which I hope will extend into drug discrimination designs and proof-of-concept trials with clinical endpoints. My goal is to better understand the effects of both whole leaf kratom as well as isolated alkaloids in humans.