Immediate Past President
American Psychiatric Association
Rutgers New Jersey Medical School
New York, New York
Petros Levounis, MD, MA, serves as professor and chair of the Department of Psychiatry and associate dean at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. He is also the chief of service at University Hospital in Newark, New Jersey, director of the Northern New Jersey Medications for Addiction Treatment Center of Excellence, and the 150th president of the American Psychiatric Association. Dr. Levounis came to Rutgers from Columbia University where he served as director of the Addiction Institute of New York from 2002 to 2013.
Dr. Levounis is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Stanford University where he studied chemistry and biophysics before receiving his medical education at Stanford University School of Medicine and the Medical College of Pennsylvania. During medical school, he researched the effects of social class on patient-physician relationships in Oxford, England, and received an MA degree in sociology from Stanford. In 1994, he moved to New York City to train in psychiatry at the New York State Psychiatric Institute of Columbia University. He graduated from Columbia earning the National Institute of Mental Health Outstanding Resident Award and went on to complete his fellowship in addiction psychiatry at New York University.
Dr. Levounis has written numerous articles, monographs, and book chapters; has lectured extensively on addiction topics throughout the United States and abroad; and has been interviewed by CBS, ABC, NBC, CNN, FOX, The Martha Stewart Radio Show, The New York Times, and The Washington Post, among others. Dr. Levounis is a Betty Ford Scholar, a distinguished fellow of the APA and ASAM, and a recipient of the ASAM John P. McGovern Award. In 2017, he was elected as an honorary member of the World Psychiatric Association.
Dr. Levounis has published fifteen books including the self-help paperback “Sober Siblings: How to Help Your Alcoholic Brother or Sister—and Not Lose Yourself,” the textbook of “Substance Dependence and Co-Occurring Psychiatric Disorders,” “Motivational Interviewing for Clinical Practice,” "Becoming Mindful," "Behavioral Addictions," “LGBTQ+ Mental Health: The Spectrum of Gender and Sexuality,” “Buprenorphine Treatment of Opioid Use Disorder,” now in its third edition, “Technological Addictions,” and “Nature Therapy.” Dr. Levounis is currently working on a comprehensive handbook of “Internet Gaming Disorder,” which is going to be available in the fall of 2025. His books have been translated into French, German, Hungarian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish.
Dr. Levounis is married to actor Lukas Hassel and lives in New York City.
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Neurobiology of Addiction: Key Concepts and Models
Wednesday, July 23, 2025
10:45 AM – 11:30 AM ET