Since NDARC's inception, more than 80 students have successfully completed a higher degree research (HDR) program at the Centre (PhD and Masters), with a success rate of over 90%.

Students who have completed a PhD at NDARC:

Completion Year	First Name	Surname	Thesis
2024	Christel	Macdonald	The factors influencing court diversion of individuals with a drug/alcohol-related mental illness under s.32/33 of the Mental Health (Forensic Provisions) Act.
2024	Madeline	News	Closing the Gap? Critical Perspectives on Health Policy and Indigenous Self-Determination
2024	Liam	Acheson	Pilot randomised controlled trial of lisdexamphetamine for the treatment of methamphetamine withdrawal
2024	Nicole	Snowdon	AOD interventions in headspace centres
2024	Daisy	Gibbs	Improving the evidence base for services working with people who are at high risk of re-offending after release from prison
2023	Chrianna	Bharat	Data-Supported Decision Making: optimising substance dependence treatment using linked data
2023	George	Economidis	Evaluation of Functional Family Therapy - Child Welfare (FFT-CW) and Multisystemic Therapy for Child Abuse and Neglect (MST-CAN) in NSW
2023	Ria	Hopkins	Identifying and addressing issues in access to health services among people using opioids for chronic pain.
2022	Samantha	Colledge	Increasing Global Knowledge of Physical and Mental Health Harms among People who Inject Drugs
2022	Rebecca	Bosworth	Reduction of drug-related harm in prison: A global assessment of the current situation and evaluation of specific programs.
2022	Thomas	Santo Jr	Drug & Alcohol Research- Comorbidities (mental and physical health)
2022	Skye	Trudgett	Evaluation of nation-wide programs for high-risk young people
2022	Wing See	Yuen	Alcohol Use and Mental Health Problems Among Young People
2021	Douglas	James	Examining treatment outcomes for Aboriginal clients of Indigenous drug and alcohol residential treatment services in NSW
2021	Lisa	Hilder	Maternities complicated by mental illness and substance use in the information age
2021	Bonita	Byrne	Cultures within culture: exploring the influence of Aboriginal clan, family and community relationships in responding to alcohol related harms in Aboriginal communities in NSW.
2020	Philip	Clare	Methods of Adjusting for Exposure-affected Time-varying Confounding.
2020	Richard	Mellor	Advancing understandings of remission and approaches to treatment through an examination of untreated remission from alcohol problems.
2019	Shann	Hulme	The diversion and supply of pharmaceutical drugs for non-medical use.
2019	Kerryn	Butler	Hepatitis C testing and treatment among people who inject drugs.
2019	Vivienne	Moxham-Hall	Investigating the utility of indexes in comparative drug policy analysis.
2019	Amanda	Roxburgh	The epidemiology of opioid overdose mortality in Australia.
2018	Rachel	Sutherland	New psychoactive substances in Australia.
2018	Matthew	O'Reilly	Understanding how high-level synthetic stimulant traffickers in Australia adapt to changes in their drug supply.
2018	Sonja	Memedovic	Substance use disorders and depression: An examination of their relationship and the role of repetitive negative thinking as a shared risk factor.
2018	Erin	Kelly	Tackling adolescent bullying head on: Victimisation, perpetration and targeted intervention.
2018	Veronica	Boland	"I'm not strong enough, I'm not good enough, I can't do this, I'm failing": barriers, facilitators and future directions for smoking cessation among low-socioeconomic status Australian smokers.
2018	Bianca	Hoban	Associations between multiple medication use and medication-related problems among people with chronic non-cancer pain who are prescribed opioids.
2018	Alice	Munro	Healing together: Identifying the value of partnerships between rural Aboriginal communities, services and researchers to co-design, implement and evaluate programs to reduce drug and alcohol harms.
2018	Alice	Knight	Improving the evidence-base for third sector delivered programs working with high-risk young people.
2018	Katrina	Prior	Substance use disorders, depression and social phobia: An examination of co-occurring disorders.
2017	Mieke	Snijder	Maldahnalanga: Integrating rigorous research and community participation in Aboriginal community-based research.
2017	Louise	Birrell	Untangling co-morbidity: substance use and mental health in young Australians.
2017	Elizabeth	Whittaker	Housing the ‘hard-to-house’: Examination of homelessness and the impact of Housing First programs in Australia.
2017	Lucy	Albertella	Cannabis use, schizotypy, and attentional inhibition: a longitudinal study.
2016	Thu	Vuong	Economic evaluation comparing the cost-effectiveness of center-based compulsory rehabilitation (CCT) and voluntary community-based methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) in Hai Phong City, Vietnam.
2016	Larissa	Rossen	Prospective predictors of bonding and emotional availability: A longitudinal study of pregnancy and the first year of life.
2016	Clare	McCormack	Prenatal alcohol exposure and infant cognitive development.
2016	Kari	Lancaster	Problematising the 'evidence-based' drug policy paradigm
2016	Katrina	Champion	Paying attention to prevention: An Internet-based framework to address alcohol, cannabis, ecstasy and new psychoactive substance use.
2016	Gabrielle	Campbell	Complexities and comorbidities in patients with chronic non-cancer pain: Suicidal behaviours and pharmaceutical opioid use.
2015	Michelle	Tye	Understanding the liability to violent offending among injection drug users: the contribution of predispositional and substance use risks.
2015	Dam Anh	Tran	Barriers to antiretroviral therapy for people living with HIV in Vietnam.
2015	Mark	Deady	Comorbid depression and problematic alcohol use in young people: the development and evaluation of an online intervention.
2014	Monika	Wadolowski	Sipping, drinking, and parental alcohol provision: Understanding quantities of early adolescent alcohol consumption in relation to parenting practices, peer influences, and problem behaviours.
2014	Timothy	McSweeney	Promoting compliance, 'recovery' and 'desistance': Comparative case studies of pre-sentence diversion schemes for drug misusing arrestees in Australia and England.
2014	Bianca	Calabria	Creating partnerships between researchers, health care providers and Indigenous Australians to improve Indigenous health: a demonstration model.
2013	Melanie	Simpson	Caught red-eyed and red-handed: an exploration of cannabis use and criminal offending.
2013	Paul	Nelson	Drug use and recidivism among young offenders on supervised community orders.
2013	Lynne	Magor-Blatch	Intervention for amphetamine-type stimulant (ATS) use in the therapeutic community.
2013	Amy	Johnston	Suicidality in Australia: prevalence, correlates, trends and health service use.
2012	Edmund	Silins	Patterns and correlates of cannabis use in young adulthood.
2012	Louise	Mewton	The classification of substance use disorders in young adults.
2012	Francis	Matthew-Simmons	Public opinion, the media, and illicit drug policy.
2012	Briony	Larance	Non-adherence in opioid substitution therapy in Australia.
2012	Peter	Gates	Development and evaluation of a telephone-based intervention for cannabis use disorder.
2012	Joshua	Byrnes	The impact of price on alcohol consumption and the cost-effectiveness of a volumetric tax on alcohol in Australia.
2012	Emma	Barrett	Hurt people who hurt people: anger and violence among individuals with substance use disorder and post traumatic stress disorder.
2011	Fiona	Shand	The latent structure of illicit opioid dependence and comorbid psychiatric disorders.
2011	Marian	Shanahan	Assessing the economic consequences of two cannabis policy options.
2011	Hector	Navarro	Economic evaluations of interventions for alcohol misuse, dependence, and to reduce alcohol-related violent crime, at a community level in rural Australia.
2011	Sarah	Larney	Opioid substitution treatment in prison and post-release: effects on criminal recidivism and mortality.
2011	Alys	Havard	Targeting alcohol problems among patients of rural Australian emergency departments: establishing an evidence base.
2011	Courtney	Breen	Alcohol consumption and related harms in regional communities: exploring individual and community factors.
2010	Elizabeth	Conroy	The importance of child maltreatment as a correlate of mental disorder among opioid-dependent persons.
2009	Deborah	Zador	Studies in opioid drug related death.
2009	James	Shearer	Modafinil for psychostimulant dependence.
2009	Nicola	Newton	The development and evaluation of a school-based prevention program for alcohol and cannabis use delivered via the internet.
2009	Devon	Indig	Detection of alcohol-related emergency department presentations.
2009	Amy	Gibson	Mortality among the recipients of methadone, buprenorphine and naltrexone maintenance for the treatment of opioid dependence: the levels, predictors and causes of mortality.
2008	Greg	Martin	Brief intervention for cannabis use among young people.
2008	Elizabeth	Maloney	Opioid dependence: Associations with suicidal behaviour and other psychiatric comorbidity.
2007	Laura	Vogl	Climate schools: alcohol module - the feasibility and efficacy of a universal school-based computerised prevention program for alcohol misuse and related harms.
2007	Heather	Proudfoot	DSM-IV alcohol use disorders in Australia: validity, prevalence and treatment seeking.
2006	Anna	Williamson	The effects of cocaine use on outcomes for the treatment of heroin dependence in Sydney, Australia.
2006	Katherine	Mills	Post traumatic stress disorder among people with heroin dependence.
2006	Jo	Kimber	Role of the Sydney Medically Supervised Injecting Centre in reducing injecting drug use-related harm: evaluating accessibility, utilisation, coverage and selected health impacts.
2006	Neil	Donnelly	The use of interrupted time series analysis to evaluate the impact of Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme policies on drug utilisation in Australia.
2005	Peter	Lawrinson	Development and piloting of a treatment outcome monitoring system for opioid maintenance pharmacotherapy services in New South Wales, Australia.
2005	Carolyn	Day	Understanding the relationship between hepatitis C infection and heroin use in Australia: Epidemics, drug markets and methodology.
2004	Lucinda	Burns	Comorbidity between alcohol use disorders, anxiety and depression.
2003	Sharlene	Kaye	Injecting and non-injecting cocaine use in Sydney, Australia: prevalence, patterns and associated harms.
2002	Amanda	Reid	Cannabis use and risk perception among Australian youth.
2001	Louisa	Degenhardt	Comorbidity between substance use and mental health in Australia: Relationships of alcohol, tobacco and cannabis use with other substance use and mental disorders.
2000	Catherine	Spooner	The nature and treatment of psychoactive substance use disorders among adolescents.
1999	Libby	Topp	The nature of the amphetamine dependence syndrome.
1999	Wendy	Swift	Patterns and correlates of cannabis dependence.
1999	Joanne	Ross	Benzodiazepine use among heroin users in Sydney, Australia.
1999	Rebecca	McKetin	Cognitive functioning and psychological morbidity among illicit amphetamine users.
1999	Julie	Hando	Patterns of illicit psychostimulant use in Australia and correlates of harm.
1999	Margaret	Cooke	Barriers to the systematic provision of smoking cessation education during pregnancy.
1997	Kate	Dolan	HIV in Australian prisons : transmission, risk behaviours and prevention.
1996	Jeff	Ward	Factors influencing the effectiveness of methadone maintenance treatment : change and innovation in New South Wales, Australia 1985-1995.
1996	Claudia	Sannibale	An evaluation of Cloninger's typology of alcohol abuse.
1996	Vaughan	Rees	Cue reactivity in tobacco smokers : the role of Pavlovian conditioning in drug dependence phenomena.
1996	Margaret	Kelaher	Decision-making and HIV risk behaviour among gay men and injecting drug users.
1996	Amanda	Baker	Motivational interviewing and relapse prevention interventions for HIV risk reduction among injecting drug users.
1995	Jan	Copeland	The development of a model of treatment for women with alcohol and other drug problems.
1994	Nadia	Solowij	Event-related potential indices of cognitive functioning in long term cannabis use.
1994	Lynette	Lewis	The inner Sydney gay dance party culture in the context of the HIVAIDS pandemic: a qualitative analysis.

Students who have completed a MD at NDARC:

Completion Year	First Name	Surname	Thesis
2008	Adam	Winstock	The spectrum of substance use risk among in and out treatment drug using populations and the role of service providers in optimising the potential benefits of treatment through enhancing treatment knowledge, satisfaction and adherence.
2012	Bradley	Mathers	Developing a global perspective on injecting drug use, related harms and responses.

NDARC offers postgraduate research opportunities for students interested in alcohol and other drug research. Visit scholarships at NDARC for more information and scholarship opportunities.

A number of NDARC staff are available to supervise HDR candidates. Visit find a supervisor for a full list of potential supervisors.

Visit our students for a list of current NDARC HDR students and their projects.

If you have any questions or require further information about NDARC’s HDR program please email ndarc.hdr@unsw.edu.au.