Jean Lud Cadet, M.D. attended Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, from which he obtained his MD in 1979.  He completed his residency training in psychiatry at the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University and neurology at the Department of Neurology at Mount Sinai Medical Center, both in New York City. In 1992, he joined the National Institute on Drug Abuse Intramural Research Program (NIDA IRP), where he is presently a senior NIH investigator and the Chief of the Molecular Neuropsychiatry Research Branch.  

Dr. Cadet has co-authored more than 300 papers, abstracts, and book chapters on the mechanisms of addiction and brain damage. Based on the citations of his papers, his h-index is 87. He has written papers about cognitive dysfunctions observed in cocaine and marijuana abusers. Presently, his laboratory is studying how stimulants and oxycodone can cause epigenetic, transcriptional, and biochemical changes in the brain.  

The Cadet Lab has shown that unexpected foot shocks can separate rats that were already taking large amounts of methamphetamine into addicted and non-addicted rats. Dr. Cadet found differences in the expression of ion (potassium) channels in the brain of those animals. The lab also found that rats that took large quantities of oxycodone can be separated into addicted and non-addicted rats by foot shock punishment. These findings are similar to those observed in humans. His laboratory is using these animal models in an effort to develop better therapeutic approaches for substance use disorders.