Steven Shoptaw, PhD, is a licensed psychologist and is the Center Director for CHIPTS. He is Professor in the UCLA Departments of Family Medicine and Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences and Vice Chair of Research in Family Medicine. Dr. Shoptaw has a portfolio of work that focuses on the treatment of addiction and HIV prevention in the context of addiction in the Western U.S. where stimulant use is the single strongest predictor of HIV transmission. Dr. Shoptaw is a member of the DAIDS-funded, HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) Executive Committee, and Clinical Site Leader for several HPTN studies, including HPTN 061, which documented that high-risk Black men who have sex with men (MSM) have 7% incidence in Los Angeles. As high rates of stimulant and alcohol use link with new infections in his studies, Dr. Shoptaw also is MPI on a 5-year cooperative agreement (U01 DA036267; the MStudy) to establish a cohort of MSM of color to investigate interactions between non-injection use of methamphetamine, cocaine, opiates and binge drinking and HIV transmission dynamics.

Contact: sshoptaw@mednet.ucla.edu

Featured Publications:

1. Trivedi MH, Walker R, Ling W, Dela Cruz A, Sharma G, Carmody T, Ghitza UE, Wahle A, Kim M, Shores-Wilson K, Sparenborg S, Coffin P, Schmitz J, Wiest K, Bart G, Sonne SC, Wakhlu S, Rush AJ, Nunes EV, Shoptaw S. Bupropion and Naltrexone in Methamphetamine Use Disorder. N Engl J Med. 2021 Jan 14;384(2):140-153. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2020214. PMID: 33497547; PMCID: PMC8111570.

2. Shoptaw S, Li MJ, Javanbakht M, Ragsdale A, Goodman-Meza D, Gorbach PM. Frequency of reported methamphetamine use linked to prevalence of clinical conditions, sexual risk behaviors, and social adversity in diverse men who have sex with men in Los Angeles. Drug Alcohol Depend. 2022 Mar 1;232:109320. doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2022.109320. Epub 2022 Jan 19. PMID: 35093681; PMCID: PMC8885921.

3. Üsküp DK, Castellon-Lopez YM, Jolayemi O, Branch CA, Adeyiga O, Shoptaw S. Racial (In)Equity in South Los Angeles-Community Centered Experiences with COVID-19 Syndemics. Health Equity. 2024 Jul 1;8(1):446-454. doi: 10.1089/heq.2023.0188. PMID: 39011070; PMCID: PMC11249122.