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Draft:Professor Reinout W. Wiers

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Reinout W. Wiers (born March 3, 1966) is a Dutch psychologist, known for his work in addiction psychology.[1][2][3][4][5]

Early Life and Education

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After completing his PhD, Wiers started his academic career at University of Amsterdam, where he worked as an assistant and associate professor from 1998 to 2008.[6]During this time, he received a VIDI grant for his research on implicit cognition and addiction.[7] From 2006 to 2008, he held a professorship of addiction in youth at Radboud University Nijmegen. In 2008, he returned to the University of Amsterdam and was awarded a VICI grant for a large-scale research project aimed at changing implicit cognitive processes in addiction to improve treatment outcomes.[8][9]

He served as a professor of psychology and the chair of Developmental Psychopathology at the University of Amsterdam, where he led the Addiction Development and Psychopathology (ADAPT) Lab, founded in 2009.[10] Wiers is also the co-director of the University of Amsterdam’s interdisciplinary Centre for Urban Mental Health.[11] He has published over 400 international papers. He is the editor of the Handbook of Implicit Cognition and Addiction and the Sage Handbook of Addiction Psychology. Additionally, he authored the book A New Perspective on Addiction and Choice: Akrasia and the Nature of Free Will.[12]

Career and Research

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After completing his PhD, Wiers started his academic career at University of Amsterdam,[13] where he worked as an assistant and associate professor from 1998 to 2008.[14][15] During this time, he received a VIDI grant for his research on implicit cognition and addiction. From 2006 to 2008, he held a professorship of addiction in youth at Radboud University Nijmegen. In 2008, he returned to the University of Amsterdam and was awarded a VICI grant for a large-scale research project aimed at changing implicit cognitive processes in addiction to improve treatment outcomes. [16]

Awards and honors

  • Master's thesis 'The nature of natural representation', awarded as best thesis of the faculty (Faculty of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, 1992).
  • ISBRA (International Society for Biomedical Research on Alcoholism) Meeting Award (2002).
  • NWO Vidi award (2002)              
  • NWO Vici award (2008)
  • APS fellow (2012)
  • Appointed honorary Faculty Professor Social and Behavioral Sciences UvA (2014-2019)


Notable Contributions

Wiers and his colleagues assessed automatically activated alcohol associations using various forms of the Implicit Association Test. Their research showed that only heavy drinkers showed automatic arousal associations. They also developed new tests to assess automatically activated approach tendencies for alcohol and other substances such as cigarettes and cannabis. In collaboration with Australian researchers, Wiers recently helped create a more reliable dual-probe test to assess attentional bias for alcohol.

A major part of Wiers' research has focused on Cognitive Bias Modification (CBM) to target implicit processes in addiction.[17] His team developed alcohol-avoidance training, which has been tested in both student volunteers and patients with alcohol use disorders. Their studies indicate that while CBM training alone may not be effective, it improves treatment outcomes when combined with inpatient abstinence-oriented treatment, resulting in approximately 10% less relapse one year post-treatment.

Wiers and colleagues developed an influential dual-process model of addiction that distinguished between impulsive or associative processes and reflective or controlled processes. From this perspective, CBM could help by targeting impulsive processes, while standard treatment ("talk therapy") primarily targets reflective processes. However, based on new insights into underlying cognitive mechanisms a new perspective was developed, where CBM aims to change automatic inferences (ABC training, for which preliminary positive results have been reported.

Wiers and colleagues performed the first large randomized controlled trial (RCT) testing the efficacy of baclofen, a medication originally used for muscle spasms, that showed promise in the treatment of alcohol use disorder after the French physicist Olivier Ameisen treated his own alcohol use disorder with a high dose of baclofen, on which he wrote a case description and book.[18] The RCT did not yield positive results, but did yield an unexpected effect on a heavily stuttering patient, which disappeared after baclofen and reappeared after discontinuation of the medication, as described in a case report.

Wiers has been part of a European network challenging the view that addiction is a chronic brain disease. He argues that addiction is not a moral failure nor a chronic brain disease in the majority of cases but rather a result of biased choice.

Publications and Editorships[RW1]

Wiers published 3 popular science books in Dutch, the last one he translated and adapted to English (2024 Routledge): A new approach to addiction and choice: Akrasia and the Nature of free will. The book provides a novel examination of the nature of addiction, suggesting that by exploring akrasia—the tendency to act against one’s better judgement—we can better understand our addictive behaviors. It offers an alternative to the dominant biomedical model of addiction as a chronic brain disease by looking at the nature of how we make decisions and proposing the idea that biased choice is central to addiction.

The book looks at both classic substance use disorders and newer “addictions” to smartphones, meat and fossil fuels. It discusses current perspectives on free will in philosophy, psychology and neuroscience, and the questions surrounding free will versus determinism, including our ability to steer our behaviors guided by the promise of future outcomes. Different perspectives on addiction and choice are presented in an eloquent style, and illustrated by personal stories.

Wiers has edited works such as the Handbook of Implicit Cognition and Addiction and the Sage Handbook of Addiction Psychology. His book A New Perspective on Addiction and Choice: Akrasia and the Nature of Free Will was published by Routledge in 2024. He is one of the senior editors of the journal Addiction since 2009.

Wiers has received grants from many institutions, including the Dutch National Science Foundation (VIDI & VICI), the European Union, and international grants from NIDA.


Awards and honors

  • Master's thesis 'The nature of natural representation', awarded as best thesis of the faculty (Faculty of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, 1992).
  • ISBRA (International Society for Biomedical Research on Alcoholism) Meeting Award (2002).
  • NWO Vidi award (2002)              
  • NWO Vici award (2008)
  • APS fellow (2012)
  • Appointed honorary Faculty Professor Social and Behavioral Sciences UvA (2014-2019)


Selected articles, essays and research papers

  • Wiers R.W., van Woerden, N., Smulders, F. T. Y. & De Jong, P. J. (2002). Implicit and Explicit Alcohol-Related Cognitions in Heavy and Light Drinkers. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 111, 648-658.
  • Wiers, R. W. & Stacy, A. W. (2006). Implicit cognition and addiction. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 15, 292-296.
  • Wiers, R. W., Bartholow, B. D., van den Wildenberg, E., Thush, C., Engels, R.C.M.E., Sher, K. J., Grenard, J., Ames, S. L., & Stacy, A. W. (2007). Automatic and controlled processes and the development of addictive behaviors in adolescents: A review and a model. Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior, 86, 263-283.
  • Wiers, R. W. Rinck, M., Dictus, M. & Van den Wildenberg, E. (2009). Relatively Strong Automatic Appetitive Action-Tendencies in Male Carriers of the OPRM1 G-Allele. Genes Brain & Behavior, 8, 101–106.
  • Wiers, R. W., Rinck, M. Kordts, R., Houben, K., & Strack, F. (2010). Re-training Automatic Action-Tendencies to Approach Alcohol in Hazardous Drinkers. Addiction, 105, 279–287.
  • Schoenmakers, T. & Wiers, R. W. (2010). Craving and attentional bias respond differently to alcohol priming: a field study in the pub. European Addiction Research, 16, 9–16.
  • Stacy, A. W. & Wiers, R. W. (2010). Implicit Cognition and Addiction: A Tool for Explaining Paradoxical Behavior. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 6, 551-575.
  • Wiers, R. W., Eberl, C., Rinck, M., Becker, E. & Lindenmeyer, J. (2011). Re-training automatic action tendencies changes alcoholic patients’ approach bias for alcohol and improves treatment outcome. Psychological Science, 22(4), 490-497.
  • Gladwin, T. E., Figner, B., Crone, E. A., & Wiers, R. W. (2011). Addiction, Adolescence, and the Integration of Control and Motivation. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 1, 364-376.
  • Cousijn, J., Goudriaan, A. E., & Wiers, R. W. (2011). Reaching out towards cannabis: Approach‐bias in heavy cannabis users predicts changes in cannabis use. Addiction, 106(9), 1667-1674.
  • Watson, P., de Wit, S., Hommel, B., & Wiers, R. W. (2012). Motivational Mechanisms and Outcome Expectancies Underlying the Approach Bias toward Addictive Substances. Frontiers in Psychology, 3, 440.
  • Wiers, R. W., Gladwin, T. E., Hofmann, W. Salemink, E., & Ridderinkhof, K. R. (2013). Cognitive Bias Modification and Control Training in Addiction and Related Psychopathology: Mechanisms, Clinical Perspectives and Ways Forward. Clinical Psychological Science, 1(2), 192-212.
  • Eberl, C., Wiers, R. W., Pawelczack, S., Rinck, M., Becker, E. S., & Lindenmeyer, J. (2013). Approach bias modification in alcohol dependence: Do clinical effects replicate and for whom does it work best? Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 4, 38–51. 
  • Wiers, R. W., Houben, K., Fadardi, J. S., van Beek, P., Rhemtulla, M. T., & Cox, W. M. (2015). Alcohol Cognitive Bias Modification Training for Problem Drinkers over the Web. Addictive Behaviors, 40, 21-26.
  • Wiers, C. E., Stelzel, C., Gladwin, T. E., Park, S. Q., Pawelczack S., Gawron, C. K., Stuke, H., Heinz, A., Wiers, R. W., Rinck, M., Lindenmeyer, J., Walter, H. (2015). Effects of Cognitive Bias Modification-Training on Neural Alcohol Cue Reactivity in Alcohol-Dependence. American Journal of Psychiatry, 172(4), 335-343
  • Beraha, E.M., Salemink, E., Goudriaan, A.E., Bakker, A., de Jong, D., Smits, N., Zwart, J.W., Geest, D.V., Bodewits, P., Schiphof, T., Defourny, H., van Tricht, M., van den Brink, W., Wiers, R.W. (2016). Efficacy and safety of high-dose baclofen for the treatment of alcohol dependence: A multicentre, randomised, double-blind controlled trial. European Neuropsychopharmacology,  26(12), 1950-1959. doi: 10.1016/j.euroneuro.2016.10.006.
  • Elfeddali, I., de Vries, H., Bolman, C., Pronk, T., & Wiers, R. W. (2016). A randomized controlled trial of Web-based Attentional Bias Modification to help smokers quit. Health Psychology, 35(8), 870–880. http://doi.org/10.1037/hea0000346
  • Lindgren KP, Neighbors C, Teachman BA, Baldwin SA, Norris J, Kaysen D, Gasser ML, Wiers RW. (2016). Implicit alcohol associations, especially drinking identity, predict drinking over time. Health Psychol. 2016 Aug;35(8):908-18. doi: 10.1037/hea0000396
  • Wiers, C.E., Wiers, R.W. (2017). Imaging the neural effects of cognitive bias modification training. NeuroImage, 151, 81-91.
  • Fenton, T. & Wiers, R. W. (2017). Free Will, Black Swans and Addiction. Neuroethics, 10(1), 157-165.
  • Beraha, E., Bodewits, P., van den Brink, W., Wiers, R. (2017). Speaking fluently with baclofen? BMJ Case reports.
  • Wiers RW, Boffo M, Field M. (2018). What's in a Trial? On the Importance of Distinguishing Between Experimental Lab Studies and Randomized Controlled Trials: The Case of Cognitive Bias Modification and Alcohol Use Disorders. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 79(3), 333-343.
  • Rinck, M., Wiers, R. W., Becker, E. S., & Lindenmeyer, J. (2018). Relapse prevention in abstinent alcoholics by cognitive bias modification: Clinical effects of combining approach bias modification and attention bias modification. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 86(12), 1005–1016.
  • Heather, N., Best, D., Kawalek, A., Field,  M., Lewis, M., Rotgers, F., Wiers. R. W. & Heim, D. (2018): Challenging the brain disease model of addiction: European launch of the addiction theory network, Addiction Research & Theory, 26(4), 249-255. DOI: 10.1080/16066359.2017.1399659
  • Field, M., Heather, N. & Wiers, R.W. (2019). Indeed, not really a brain disorder: Implications for reductionist accounts of addiction. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 42, e9
  • Wiers, R. W., Van Dessel, P., Köpetz, C. (2020). ABC Training: A New Theory-Based Form of Cognitive-Bias Modification to Foster Automatization of Alternative Choices in the Treatment of Addiction and Related Disorders. Current Directions in Psychological Science 29(5), 499-505. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721420949500
  • Wiers, R. W., & Verschure, P. (2021). Curing the broken brain model of addiction: Neurorehabilitation from a systems perspective. Addictive Behaviors, 112, 106602. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2020.106602
  • Manning, V., Garfield, J. B. B., Staiger, P. K., Lubman, D. I., Lum, J. A. G., Reynolds, J., Hall, K., Bonomo, Y., Lloyd-Jones, M., Wiers, R. W., Piercy, H., Jacka, D., & Verdejo-Garcia, A. (2021). Effect of Cognitive Bias Modification on Early Relapse among Adults Undergoing Inpatient Alcohol Withdrawal Treatment: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Psychiatry, 78(2), 133-140. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2020.3446
  • Salemink, E., Rinck, M., Becker, E., Wiers, R. W., & Lindenmeyer, J. (2021). Does comorbid anxiety or depression moderate effects of approach bias modification in the treatment of alcohol use disorders? Psychology of Addictive Behaviors ,36(5,) 547-554.  https://doi.org/10.1037/adb0000642
  • Mansueto, A. C., Wiers, R. W., van Weert, J. C. M., Schouten, B. C., &  Epskamp, S. (in press 2021) Investigating the Feasibility of Idiographic Network Models. Psychological Methods. https://doi.org/10.1037/met0000466
  • Van Dessel, P., Cummins, J., & Wiers, R. W. (2023). ABC‐training as a new intervention for hazardous alcohol drinking: Two proof‐of‐principle randomized pilot studies. Addiction, 118(11), 2141-2155. https://doi.org/10.1111/add.16271
  • Mansueto, A. C., Pan, T., van Dessel, P., & Wiers, R. W. (2023). Ecological Momentary Assessment and Personalized Networks in Cognitive Bias Modification Studies on Addiction: Advances and Challenges. Journal of Experimental Psychopathology, 14(2), 20438087231178123.
  • Vrijsen, J.N., Grafton, B., Koster, E.H.W., Lau, J., Wittekind, C.E., Bar-Haim, Y., Becker, E.S., Brotman, M.A., Joormann, J., Lazarov, A., MacLeod, C., Manning, V., Pettit, J.W., Rinck, M., Salemink, E., Woud, M.L., Hallion, L.S., & Wiers, R.W. (2024). Towards implementation of cognitive bias modification in mental health care: State of the science, best practices, and ways forward. Behaviour Research and Therapy. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/jnax3

Personal Life

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Wiers is married and has three children. During his student years, he wrote short stories, collected in a book titled Donker Bewaren ("Dark Storage"), published in 1991. He also performed in a cabaret group.[19]

References

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  1. ^ https://www.parool.nl/nieuws/proef-met-tinderen-tegen-alcoholverslaving~bf14343a/. Retrieved 2024-07-30. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  2. ^ "Slamming the fridge: Trumping the booze bias". Association for Psychological Science - APS. Retrieved 2024-07-30.
  3. ^ Amsterdam, Universiteit van (2024-05-30). "Prof. dr. R.W.H.J. (Reinout) Wiers". University of Amsterdam. Retrieved 2024-07-30.
  4. ^ "Reinout W Wiers". scholar.google.nl. Retrieved 2024-07-30.
  5. ^ "persons reinout wiers".
  6. ^ "Wiers, Reinout". New Science of Mental Disorders. Retrieved 2024-07-30.
  7. ^ "Reinout Wiers – Complexities of Adverse Behavior & Mental Health". Retrieved 2024-07-30.
  8. ^ "Reinout Wiers". openresearch.amsterdam (in Dutch). 2019-01-01. Retrieved 2024-07-30.
  9. ^ "Slamming the fridge: Trumping the booze bias". Association for Psychological Science - APS. Retrieved 2024-07-30.
  10. ^ "Reinout Wiers, prof. P.hD". Caring Universities (in Dutch). Retrieved 2024-07-30.
  11. ^ "Wiers.pdf" (PDF).
  12. ^ "A New Approach to Addiction and Choice: Akrasia and the Nature of Free Will". Routledge & CRC Press. Retrieved 2024-07-30.
  13. ^ "Reinout Wiers, prof. P.hD". Caring Universities (in Dutch). Retrieved 2024-07-30.
  14. ^ "Reinout Wiers". openresearch.amsterdam (in Dutch). 2019-01-01. Retrieved 2024-07-30.
  15. ^ "Reinout W Wiers". scholar.google.nl. Retrieved 2024-07-30.
  16. ^ Amsterdam, Universiteit van (2024-05-30). "Prof. dr. R.W.H.J. (Reinout) Wiers". University of Amsterdam. Retrieved 2024-07-30.
  17. ^ "Insight - Prof. Reinout Wiers - Cognitive processes that increase vulnerability to addictive behaviours (and how to retrain them)". insight.qld.edu.au. Retrieved 2024-07-30.
  18. ^ France-Presse, Agence (2016-12-01). "Baclofen: alcoholism 'cure' pill no better than counselling – study". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-07-30.
  19. ^ "Insight - Prof. Reinout Wiers - Cognitive processes that increase vulnerability to addictive behaviours (and how to retrain them)". insight.qld.edu.au. Retrieved 2024-07-30.
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  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reinout-wiers-944a4910/
  • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/reinout.wiers
  • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reinoutwiers/
  • Twitter: https://twitter.com/reinoutwiers
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