Professor Vincent P Dole M.D.

Professor Vincent P. Dole graduated from Stanford University in 1934, where he major in mathematics, a discipline which was to remain central to much of his future research work and in 1939 he graduated from the Harvard Medical School. He was professor and senior physician to the Rockefeller University Hospital in mid-1960’s and was also Head of the Laboratory on the Biology of Addictive Disease. He became a Professor Emeritus in 1983 but continued his Laboratory’s research until 1990. Since then he has remained at Rockefeller University as active Professor Emeritus, writing scholarly works and providing ongoing consultancy to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse.
In 1963 Dr. Dole found that heroin addiction and its ramifications was the number one problem affecting New York City at that time. Furthurmore, he had discerned that there was essentially no fundamental or basic clinical research, and very little applied clinical research on-going to address the problems of opiate dependency and narcotic addiction and its medical. Consequently, he set his own research and that of his laboratory focusing on the treatment of narcotic addiction.
Professor Dole’s research work in the area of opiate receptor or methadone maintenance treatment for the addicts, has directly and positively influenced the lives of over 150,000 patients in the United States and worldwide, restoring them from a criminal lifestyle and potential death from drugs or diseases such as hepatitis and AIDS, to a normal functional lifestyle. He also made a significant finding in discovering that methadone does not have a negative impact on the brain and other organs of the body. His hypothesis suggested that the human brain absorbs remnants of drugs resulting in drug addiction. Indeed, the hypotheses established a relationship in the abnormal condition of the neuro nerves and the addiction behavior. The finding had encouraged greater research in brain cells at present.
Dr. Dole’s pioneering work has also been a model for efforts worldwide. The World Health Organisation has adopted many of the principles developed by Dr. Dole and methadone maintenance therapy is now being utilized worldwide.