Welcome

The Vermont Center on Behavior and Health (VCBH), led by Director Stephen T. Higgins, PhD, is an interdisciplinary research center committed to investigating relationships between personal behavior patterns (i.e., lifestyle) and risk for chronic disease and premature death. Our work has historically focused on health disparities for the most vulnerable populations, particularly among the socioeconomically disadvantaged where these risk factors are overrepresented.

 

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Located in Burlington, VT at the University of Vermont, Larner College of Medicine, VCBH researchers have a specific focus on understanding mechanisms underpinning risk and developing effective interventions and policies to promote healthy behavior. A common thread across VCBH research projects is the application of knowledge from the disciplines of behavioral economics and behavioral pharmacology to increase understanding of vulnerability to unhealthy behavior and the use of incentives and other behavioral and pharmacological interventions to support healthy behavior change interventions and policies.

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Upcoming VCBH Events


Our Annual Conference is on October 3-4!
     View the schedule!
     Register now!


Monthly Lecture Series:

September 18:
Sherrie Khadanda, MD

November 20: 
Joseph McClernon, PhD

December 18: 
Hugh Garavan, PhD

Visit the Center on Rural Addiction

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VCBH Career Opportunities

Postdoctoral Research Fellowships. Click here for more information.

VCBH News

  • Special Issue of Preventive Medicine Released
    The November 2020 Special Issue of Preventive Medicine is the seventh in a series that focuses on behavior change, health, and health disparities. Edited by VCBH Director Stephen T. Higgins, PhD, this year's issue highlights some current challenges in tobacco control and regulatory science and features researchers that participated in the VCBH 7th Annual Conference held in October 2019.
  • VCBH Faculty Andrea Villanti, PhD, MPH Receives International Recognition
    Andrea Villanti, PhD, MPH, an associate professor of psychiatry and psychological science at the Vermont Center on Behavior and Health (VCBH), Larner College of Medicine, University of Vermont, has been named to Clarivate™ Highly Cited Researchers™ list of the world’s most influential researchers, based on the number of times her published studies have been cited by other researchers over the past decade.
  • Contingency Management Gains National Media Attention
    A recent article in the New York Times, “This Addiction Treatment Works. Why Is It So Underused?” sought to examine why CM is not being implemented in treatment programs throughout the United States.
  • Study Finds Lowering Nicotine Reduces Smoking Addictiveness in Vulnerable Populations
    A JAMA Network Open study, led by Stephen T. Higgins, Ph.D., director of the Vermont Center on Behavior and Health at the University of Vermont’s Larner College of Medicine, provides evidence that, even in smokers from vulnerable populations, reducing nicotine content to low levels decreases addictiveness – a timely finding as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) considers a policy to lower nicotine content in all cigarettes sold in the U.S.
  • 8th Annual VCBH Conference
    Last week, we held the 8th Annual VCBH Conference virtually due to COVID19. This year’s theme, Rural Addiction and Health, “could not be timelier with the emergence of COVID-19 and the ripple effects we have seen, from health disparities to increased opioid overdoses and the use of telemedicine,“ noted VCBH Director Stephen T. Higgins in his welcome letter to attendees.