Professor Nadine Ezard | UNSW Research

Biography

Dr Nadine Ezard is an Addiction Medicine Specialist (MBBS, BA, MPH, PhD, FAChAM) and a founding fellow of the Australian Chapter of Addiction Medicine. She is a Professor and the inaugural Director of the National Centre for Clinical Research on Emerging Drugs (NCCRED) with the Faculty of Medicine at the University of New South Wales. Also, since 2012, she has been the Clinical Director of the Alcohol and Drug Service at St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney, which serves people with a variety of substance use disorders in inpatient, outpatient and community settings and strives to embed innovation in practice. Previously, she worked for the World Health Organization, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime.

Dr Ezard has more than 30 years of clinical and research experience in addiction medicine and public health practice in Australian and international contexts. She is a worldwide recognised researcher in substance use and its translation into consumer-focused harm-reduction public health interventions, models of care and policy for vulnerable populations. Her current research focusses on working with people who use stimulants and related drugs to develop new and effective interventions, and she has a particular interest in substance use disorders among refugees and other displaced populations.

My Grants

Canadian Institutes of Health Research (2022) - $4,986,432.00: Addition of high dose Stimulant and engagement-focused Contingency management, alone and in combination, to treatment as usual for the management of Methamphetamine use disorder (ASCME): a pan-Canadian multisite randomized controlled trial. Jutras-Aswad, Rehm, Hodgins, Stewart, Wood, Ezard, Trivedi, de Kiewit, Johnson.

NHMRC Partnership Grant (2021) - $1,068,044.00: Implementing population-specific psychosocial interventions to optimise treatment, care and support among men who have sex with men who use methamphetamine. Prestage, Ezard, Degenhardt, Maher, McNulty, Murphy, Siefried.

NHMRC Ideas Grant (2021) - $2,614,769.00: Better data on methamphetamines and other drugs among Indigenous Australians to inform policy and practice. Lee, Wilson, Conigrave, Chikritzhs, Hayman, Dawson, Ali, Conigrave, Fitts. AI Ezard.

NHMRC Ideas Grant (2021) - $3,722,730.80: Emerging Drugs Network of Australia: a coordinated toxicosurveillance system of illicit drug use in Australia to enable rapid detection and harm reduction responses via an Early Warning System. Fatovich, Soderstron, Dawson, Alfred, Greene, Isoardi, Pulbrook, McCuthcheon, Oosthuizen, Ezard.

St Vincent’s Health Australia Inclusive Health Program (2020) - $103,970: Extension of LiMA study. CIA Ezard, Ali, Dunlop, Lintzeris, White, McKetin, Bruno, Carr, Dolan.

St Vincent’s Health Australia Inclusive Health Program (2019) - $153,057: Treatment of Hospitalised Inpatients for Hepatitis C. Matthews, Dore, Ezard, Rodgers, Hickey.

St Vincent’s Clinic Foundation (2019) - $24,216.52: Vaporised Nicotine Products in Gorman Unit. Ezard, Agrawal, Caspersonn, Steele, Day, Austin, Bonevski, Hachigo, Malone.

NHMRC Partnership Grant (2019) - $617,797: A managed alcohol project (MAP) for Australia. CIA Ezard, Stockwell, Haber, Baldry, Day, Dobbins, Peacock, Pauley, Lintzeris, Dolan.

NHMRC Partnership Grant (2019) - $1,302,456: Implementation of time-limited parenteral hydromorphone in people with treatment-resistant injecting opioid use disorder: Feasibility, acceptability, and cost. Bell, Ritter, Treloar, Ezard, Roberts, Siefried.

NHMRC Project Grant (2019) - $1,833,000: Test the effectiveness of VNPs for smoking cessation for AOD clients who have already stopped tobacco smoking during a short inpatient withdrawal admission, following discharge. Bonevski, Baker, Manning, Gartner, Walker, Segan, Bullen, Oldmeadow, Bauld, Dunlop. AI Ezard

National Centre for Clinical Research on Emerging Drugs Seed Funding (2019) - $68,400: An acceptability and feasibility study of the We Can Do This online therapeutic program in primary care and residential rehabilitation settings. Ward, Reilly, McKetin, Ezard, Treloar, Dunlop, Wand, Roe, Butt, Quinn.

NSW Health Translational Research Grant (2019) - $997.904: A trial of the effectiveness of vaporised nicotine products (VNPs) for smoking cessation amongst NSW opiate agonist treatment (OAT) clients. Dunlop, Bonevski, Lintzeris, Ezard, Gartner, Oldmeadow, Searl, Nean, Ward, McLennan, Haber.

NSW Health Translational Research Grant (2019) - $503,724: The Hub Project: An innovative model to address lack of rural access to specialist alcohol and drug treatment using mixed face to face and telehealth support. Ezard, Acheson, Brett, Dunlop, Kay-Lamkin, Lee, Liu, Shakeshaft, Siefried.

National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre Seed Funding (2019) - $40,000: Big data and machine learning: Using routinely-collected data in hospital settings to identify people with problematic alcohol use. Peacock, Ezard, Lintzeris, Siefried, Brett, Leung, Malone, Acheson.

National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre Seed Funding (2019) - $40,000: Feasibility, consumer acceptability and behavioural outcomes associated with take-home fentanyl test strips. Sutherland, Peacock, Barratt, Bruno, Rodgers, Steele, Page, Ezard.

National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre Seed Funding (2019) - $40,000: Optimising retention in Opioid Agonist Therapy: A retrospective evaluation. Gibbs, Rodgers, Shakeshaft, Farnbach, Ezard, Cherry, Acheson, Siefried.

NSW Health AOD Innovation Grant (2018) - $339,740: Feasibility and efficacy of the S-Check App: A harm reduction and early intervention smartphone application for methamphetamine use. Ezard, Kay-Lambkin, Herman, Malone, Middleton, Clifford, Lambert.

National Centre for Clinical Research on Emerging Drugs Seed Funding (2018) - $104,000: Developing a ‘clinical data laboratory’ for methamphetamine use in NSW: The MAData Project. Lintzeris, Deacon, Shakeshaft, Cretikos, Holmes, Mammen, Ezard, Mils, Farrell, Dunlop, Siefried.

National Centre for Clinical Research on Emerging Drugs Seed Funding (2018) - $23,481: Sentinel Surveillance for emerging illicitly manufactured fentanyl use in an inner-city opioid agonist treatment service. Rodgers, Peacock, Siefried, Ezard, Dyer, Kelly.

St Vincent’s Health Australia Grant Scheme (2018) - $49,785: OCOP: Optimising clinical outcomes for people who inject drugs. Ezard, Clifford, Murray, Harrod, Brener.

St Vincent’s Health Australia Grant Scheme (2018) - $40,500: SUSI: Substance use and sex index, a new tool to measure behaviour change. Ezard, Bruno, Rodgers, Clifford.

St Vincent’s Health Australia Inclusive Health Innovation Funds (2017) - $53,000: S-check app - a novel intervention for people who use methamphetamine. Ezard, Kay-Lambkin, Herman, Malone, Middleton, Clifford, Lambert.

SVHS Curran Foundation (2017) - $45,000: Medications for Lisdexamfetamine for the treatment of methamphetamine dependence, a dose-escalation trial. Ezard, Ali, Dunlop, Lintzeris, White, McKetin, Bruno, Carr, Dolan

NHMRC Partnership Grant (2016) - $3,600,000: Driving Change: Using Emergency Department Data To Reduce Alcohol-related Harm. Miller, Egerton-Warburton, Shakeshaft, Caldicott, Staiger, Havard, Doran, Baker, Bower, Ezard.

NHMRC Project Grant (2016) - $1,303,735.21: Randomised double-blind placebo-controlled study of lisdexamfetamine for the treatment of methamphetamine dependence (the LIMA study). CIA Ezard, Ali, Dunlop, Lintzeris, White, McKetin, Bruno, Carr, Dolan.

NHMRC Project Grant (2016) - $2,177,908.10: Novel interventions to address methamphetamines in Aboriginal communities, including a randomised trial of a web based therapeutic tool used to treat dependence in clinical settings. Ward, McKetin, Treloar, Conigrave, Dunlop, Wilkes, Gray, Quinn, Wand, Ezard.

NSW Health Translational Research Grants Scheme (2016) - $273,704: Implementation and evaluation of take-home naloxone for opioid overdose prevention in Drug and Alcohol treatment and Needle Syringe Programs attendees. Lintzeris, Dunlop, Haber, Ezard, Read, Harrod, Dietze, Lenton, Nielsen, Shanahan, Monds.

St Vincent’s Health Australia (2015) - $200,000: Hosquit: a system change intervention for the management of nicotine dependence in hospitalised patients. Ezard, Schembri, Bonevski, Bernardi, Middleton, McInnes, Deweerd, Curry, Bradfield, Ferguson, Limiatis, O’Mahony.

Foundation for Alcohol Research and Evaluation (2014) - $20,000: Feasibility and acceptability of a Managed Alcohol Program for Sydney's homeless. CIA Ezard, Dolan, Baldry, Day, Burns, O’Mahony.

My Qualifications

MBBS, BA, MPH, PhD, FAChAM

My Awards

AFR 100 women of Influence, 2016

Commonwealth Scholarship, 2007-2011

Harkness Fellowship, 1997-1998

Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in the UK, 2008

My Research Activities

Current Research:

An open-label safety and feasibility pilot trial of ketamine-assisted psychotherapy for methamphetamine use disorder (the KAPPA trial) (pending recruitment, info to follow)

An open-label safety and feasibility pilot trial of oral naltrexone-bupropion combination pharmacotherapy for methamphetamine use disorder (the NABU trial) (closed to recruitment, info here)

Safety, tolerability, and feasibility of psilocybin-facilitated treatment for methamphetamine use disorder: a pilot study (closed to recruitment, info here)

Implementation of time-limited parenteral hydromorphone in people with treatment-resistant injecting opioid use disorder: feasibility, safety, cost (closed to recruitment, info here)