Dr. Liebschutz’s research is focused on developing interventions to combat the current crisis in opioid use disorders. More broadly her research focuses on substance use, violence, and mental health within the practice of general medical care. Earlier in her career, she studied violence and its health impacts—knowledge that she uses in her current work on substance abuse disorders. Dr. Liebschutz has conducted numerous observation and intervention studies, including research on opioid prescribing for chronic pain in primary care. She has also directed randomized trials to study the treatment of opioid and injection drug use disorders in hospitalized patients. Dr. Liebschutz has a sustained history of funding, including current R01 funding to study “Implementing opioid risk reduction strategies into primary care practice.”
Her research has been supported by the NIH’s National Institute on Drug Abuse, Health Resources and Services Administration, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the American Cancer Society, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and the Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research. She has been a frequent speaker at national and international conferences held by, among others, the Society of General Internal Medicine, the American College of Physicians, the College on Problems of Drug Dependency, and the National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network. Her topics have ranged from intimate partner violence and chronic pain management to work-life integration.
Education & Training
- BA (East Asian Studies: China), Yale University, 1983
- MD, Harvard Medical School, 1991
- MPH (Epidemiology and Biostatistics), Boston University School of Public Health, 1998
- Residency Program (Internal Medicine), Boston City Hospital, 1994
- Residency (Preventive Medicine), Boston University Medical Center, 1998
- Fellowship Program (General Medicine), Boston University Medical Center, 1998
- Faculty Fellow (Prevention and Other Drug Abuse Faculty Development Program), Boston University Medical Center, 2001
Representative Publications
Liebschutz J, Saitz R, Brower V, Keane TM, Lloyd-Travaglini C, Averbuch T, Samet JH. PTSD in urban primary care: high prevalence and low physician recognition. Journal of General Internal Medicine. 2007;22(6):719-726.
Borzecki AM, Bridgers DK, Liebschutz JM, Kader B, Kazis LE, Berlowitz DR. Racial differences in the prevalence of atrial fibrillation among males. Journal of the National Medical Association. 2008;100(2):237-245.
Meltzer EC, Rybin D, Saitz R, Samet JH, Schwartz SL, Butler SF, Liebschutz JM. Identifying prescription opioid use disorder in primary care: diagnostic characteristics of the Current Opioid Misuse Measure (COMM). Pain. 2011;152(2):397-402.
Liebschutz JM, Saitz R, Weiss RD, Averbuch T, Schwartz SL, Meltzer EC, Claggett-Borne E, Cabral H, Samet JH. Clinical factors associated with prescription drug use disorder in urban primary care patients with chronic pain. Journal of Pain. 2010;11(11):1047-1055.
Liebschutz JM, Crooks D, Herman D, Anderson B, Tsui J, Meshesha LZ, Dossabhoy S, Stein M. Buprenorphine treatment for hospitalized, opioid-dependent patients: a randomized clinical trial. JAMA Internal Medicine. 2014;174(8):1369-1376.
Liebschutz J, Battaglia T, Finley E, Averbuch T. Disclosing intimate partner violence to health care clinicians - what a difference the setting makes: a qualitative study. BMC Public Health. 2008;8:229.
Kartha A, Brower V, Saitz R, Samet JH, Keane TM, Liebschutz J. The impact of trauma exposure and post-traumatic stress disorder on healthcare utilization among primary care patients. Medical Care. 2008; 46(4): 388-393.
Fogarty CT, Fredman L, Heeren TC, Liebschutz J. Synergistic effects of child abuse and intimate partner violence on depressive symptoms in women. Preventive Medicine. 2008;46(5):463-469.
LaRochelle MR, Liebschutz JM, Zhang F, Ross-Degnan D, Wharam JF. Opioid prescribing after nonfatal overdose and association with repeated overdose: a cohort study. Annals of Internal Medicine. 2016;164(1):1-9.
Paranjape A, Rask K, Liebschutz J. Utility of STaT for the identification of recent intimate partner violence. Journal of the National Medical Association. 2006; 98(10): 1663-1669.
Click here for a more complete bibliography of Dr. Liebschutz's works.
Research Interests
- Substance abuse
- Health impacts of violence
- Mental health
- Opioid misuse