Lian-Yu Chen

During a psychiatric residency at Taipei City Psychiatric Center in Taiwan, Lian-Yu Chen noticed a peculiar pattern among some patients who were abusers of ketamine, a drug used mainly as an anesthetic for animals. They described symptoms of urinary tract infections, but their urine screens were bacteria-free. The discrepancy caused Chen to investigate a connection between chronic ketamine use and urinary tract problems and resulted in a 2009 paper in Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience; it was the first documentation in the psychiatric field of serious side effects linked to long-term ketamine abuse. “What about the people who don’t come to see me, who don’t come to the hospital?” asks Chen. “That’s why I decided to delve deeper into the field of substance abuse epidemiology.”

Currently, one of Chen’s research interests is abuse of prescription drugs, specifically Adderall—a medication abused by college students. “Illegal drugs are very well studied,” she says, “but prescription drug abuse actually affects more people.” Chen’s priority is integrating mental health and substance abuse treatment programs so that affected individuals receive comprehensive care instead of being shuffled between providers. “In my view they are highly related; one can cause the other,” says Chen. “I don’t think we can divide human beings like that.”