John F. Kelly is an American-based researcher and professor of

addiction medicine Addiction medicine is a medical subspecialty that deals with the diagnosis, prevention, evaluation, treatment, and recovery of persons with addiction, of those with substance-related and addictive disorders, and of people who show unhealthy us ...

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is consi ...

. He is the Founder and Director of the

Massachusetts General Hospital Massachusetts General Hospital (Mass General or MGH) is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School located in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is the third oldest general hospital in the United Stat ...

Recovery Research Institute, Associate Director of the MGH Center for Addiction Medicine, and Program Director of the MGH Addiction Recovery Management Service.

Education

Kelly obtained his bachelor’s degree in psychology from

Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...

and doctorate at the

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Insti ...

Clinical Psychology Clinical psychology is an integration of social science, theory, and clinical knowledge for the purpose of understanding, preventing, and relieving psychologically based distress or dysfunction and to promote subjective well-being and persona ...

Career

In 2006 Kelly was named the Elizabeth R. Spallin Professor of

Psychiatry Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of mental disorders. These include various maladaptations related to mood, behaviour, cognition, and perceptions. See glossary of psychiatry. Initial psych ...

in Addiction Medicine at Harvard Medical School. In 2013, he established The Recovery Research Institute, which is a part of the Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Psychiatry. This institute is credited for its creation of the Addictionary, a

glossary A glossary (from grc, γλῶσσα, ''glossa''; language, speech, wording) also known as a vocabulary or clavis, is an alphabetical list of Term (language), terms in a particular domain of knowledge with the definitions for those terms. Tradi ...

of addiction-related terms and a system for stigmatized terminology alerts. Kelly is a Fellow of the

American Psychological Association The American Psychological Association (APA) is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the United States, with over 133,000 members, including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants, and students. It ha ...

and a Diplomat of the

American Board of Professional Psychology The American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP) is the primary organization for specialty board certification in psychology. Mission statement "The mission of the American Board of Professional Psychology is to increase consumer protectio ...

, as well as a former President of the APA's Society of Addiction Psychology. He's worked as a consultant for federal and non-governmental agencies in the United States such as the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, the

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA; pronounced ) is a branch of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is charged with improving the quality and availability of treatment and rehabilitative services ...

, the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation The Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is an addiction treatment and advocacy organization that was created in 2014 with the merger of the Minnesota-based Hazelden Foundation and the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, California in the United State ...

, the Caron Foundation, as well as international governments and the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

. In April 2022, Kelly was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Council for Mental Wellbeing.

Select publications

* 1998: The effect of depression on return to drinking: A prospective study * 2000: A multivariate process model of adolescent 12-step attendance and substance use outcome following inpatient treatment * 2002: Do adolescents affiliate with 12-step groups? A multivariate process model of effects * 2003: Self-help for substance use disorders: History, effectiveness, knowledge gaps and research opportunities * 2004: Relapse prevention for substance use disorders: Adapting the adult-based paradigm for youth * 2005: The effects of age composition of 12-step groups on adolescent 12-step participation and substance use outcome * 2006: A 3-year study of addiction mutual-help group participation following intensive outpatient treatment * 2007: Adolescents' participation in Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous: Review, implications, and future directions * 2008: Accounting for practice-based evidence in evidence-based practice * 2009: Twelve-step facilitation in non-specialty settings * 2010: Does our choice of substance-related terms influence perceptions of treatment need? An empirical investigation with two commonly used terms. * 2011: Alcoholics Anonymous and young people * 2012: Broadening the base of addiction mutual help organizations * 2013: Mutual-help groups for alcohol and other substance use disorders * 2014: The new science on AA and 12-step facilitation * 2015: Outcomes research on 12-step programs * 2016: Twelve-step mutual-help organizations and facilitation interventions * 2017: Are societies paying unnecessarily for an otherwise free lunch? Final musings on the research on Alcoholics Anonymous and its mechanisms of behavior change * 2018: Mechanisms of behavior change in 12-step approaches to recovery in young adults * 2019: How Many Recovery Attempts Does it Take to Successfully Resolve an Alcohol or Drug Problem? Estimates and Correlates From a National Study of Recovering U.S. Adults * 2020: Alcoholics Anonymous and 12-step facilitation treatments for alcohol use disorder: A distillation of a 2020 Cochrane review for clinicians and policy makers * 2021: Addiction Recovery Mutual-Aid Organisations

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kelly, John F. American addiction physicians American psychiatrists Fellows of the American Psychological Association Harvard Medical School faculty Tufts University School of Arts and Sciences alumni University of California, San Diego alumni Living people Year of birth missing (living people)