Daniel Ciccarone, MD, MPH

Professor,
Family Community Medicine
+1 415 260-2327

Research:
My research is centered on the contextual issues of treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS, and related diseases, in socially marginalized populations. My long-term objective is to combine ethnographic and epidemiological research to explore the intricate socio-behavioral-medical issues of medication adherence, access to care and risk taking behaviors, particularly related to drug use and drug users. My work, including collaborations, has been published in JAMA, NEJM, PLoS Medicine, AJPH, JAIDS and other peer-reviewed journals.

My recent research is in exploring the different medical consequences of use of various sources and forms of heroin. The US has recently entered a new heroin epidemic, this time fueled by the recent opioid pill epidemic. My team is exploring the economic, anthropological, historical, clinical and public health dimensions of this crisis.

Teaching:
In my activities as a medical educator, I have largely worked towards improving the social, behavioral and prevention science content within the undergraduate medical school curriculum. In 2009, I became Co-Director for the Foundations of Patient Care (FPC) course. In this role, I design and administrate FPC during the Organs Block of the Essential Core course. I am also Director of the Transitional Clerkship, a two-week immersion into the clinical wards for finishing second year medical students transitioning to their clinical training years. In these roles, I am responsible for designing extensive curricula, editing syllabi, recruiting faculty, hosting sessions and direct teaching, as well as, designing and leading assessment activities.

Publications: 

Bending the Overdose Curve - Still Not Enough.

The New England journal of medicine

Ciccarone D

Decrease in injection and rise in smoking and snorting of heroin and synthetic opioids, 2000-2021.

Drug and alcohol dependence

Karandinos G, Unick J, Ondocsin J, Holm N, Mars S, Montero F, Rosenblum D, Ciccarone D

U.S. trends in methamphetamine-involved psychiatric hospitalizations in the United States, 2015-2019.

Drug and alcohol dependence

Calcaterra SL, Yamkovoy K, Swathi PA, Ciccarone D, Del Pozo B, Englander H, Wang J, Barocas JA

"I Heard of PrEP-I Didn't Think I Needed it." Understanding the Formation of HIV Risk Perception Among People Who Inject Drugs.

Culture, medicine and psychiatry

Mars S, Ondocsin J, Koester KA, Mars V, Mars G, Ciccarone D

Innovation and adaptation: The rise of a fentanyl smoking culture in San Francisco.

PloS one

Ciccarone D, Holm N, Ondocsin J, Schlosser A, Fessel J, Cowan A, Mars SG

National and regional trends in fentanyl seizures in the United States, 2017-2023.

The International journal on drug policy

Palamar JJ, Fitzgerald N, Carr TH, Cottler LB, Ciccarone D

Estimating changes in overdose death rates from increasing methamphetamine supply in Ohio: Evidence from crime lab data.

Drug and Alcohol Dependence Reports

Rosenblum D, Ondocsin J, Mars SG, Cauchon D, Ciccarone D

Testing the test strips: laboratory performance of fentanyl test strips.

Harm reduction journal

Halifax JC, Lim L, Ciccarone D, Lynch KL

The motives and methods of methamphetamine and 'heroin' co-use in West Virginia.

Harm reduction journal

Ondocsin J, Holm N, Mars SG, Ciccarone D

Insights from Drug Checking Programs: Practicing Bootstrap Public Health Whilst Tailoring to Local Drug User Needs.

International journal of environmental research and public health

Ondocsin J, Ciccarone D, Moran L, Outram S, Werb D, Thomas L, Arnold EA

Harm reduction behaviors are associated with carrying naloxone among patients on methadone treatment.

Harm reduction journal

Kozak Z, Ciccarone D, Thrul J, Cole TO, Pappas AL, Greenblatt AD, Welsh C, Yoon M, Gann D, Artigiani EE, Wish ED, Belcher AM

The Opioid Industry Documents Archive: A Living Digital Repository.

American journal of public health

Caleb Alexander G, Mix LA, Choudhury S, Taketa R, Tomori C, Mooghali M, Fan A, Mars S, Ciccarone D, Patton M, Apollonio DE, Schmidt L, Steinman MA, Greene J, Ling PM, Seymour AK, Glantz S, Tasker K

Trends in characteristics of fentanyl-related poisonings in the United States, 2015-2021.

The American journal of drug and alcohol abuse

Palamar JJ, Cottler LB, Goldberger BA, Severtson SG, Grundy DJ, Iwanicki JL, Ciccarone D

Trends in seizures of powders and pills containing illicit fentanyl in the United States, 2018 through 2021.

Drug and alcohol dependence

Palamar JJ, Ciccarone D, Rutherford C, Keyes KM, Carr TH, Cottler LB

'The High Five Club': Social Relations and Perspectives on HIV-Related Stigma During an HIV Outbreak in West Virginia.

Culture, medicine and psychiatry

Mars SG, Koester KA, Ondocsin J, Mars V, Mars G, Ciccarone D

Understanding Stimulant Use and Use Disorders in a New Era.

The Medical clinics of North America

Ciccarone D, Shoptaw S

Identifying counties at risk of high overdose mortality burden during the emerging fentanyl epidemic in the USA: a predictive statistical modelling study.

The Lancet. Public health

Marks C, Abramovitz D, Donnelly CA, Carrasco-Escobar G, Carrasco-Hernández R, Ciccarone D, González-Izquierdo A, Martin NK, Strathdee SA, Smith DM, Bórquez A

Responding to the Opioid Epidemic: Educational Competencies for Pain and Substance Use Disorder from the Medical Schools of the University of California.

Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.)

Servis M, Fishman SM, Wallace MS, Henry SG, Ziedonis D, Ciccarone D, Knight KR, Shoptaw S, Dowling P, Suchard JR, Shah S, Singh N, Cedarquist LC, Alem N, Copenhaver DJ, Westervelt M, Willis BC

Hostility, compassion and role reversal in West Virginia's long opioid overdose emergency.

Harm reduction journal

Ondocsin J, Mars SG, Howe M, Ciccarone D

High prevalence of albuminuria amongst people who inject drugs: A cross-sectional study.

Scientific reports

McGowan CR, Wright T, Nitsch D, Lewer D, Brathwaite R, Scott J, Hope V, Ciccarone D, Dunn J, Gillmore J, Story A, Harris M

Frequency of healthcare utilisation by adults who use illicit drugs: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Addiction (Abingdon, England)

Lewer D, Freer J, King E, Larney S, Degenhardt L, Tweed EJ, Hope VD, Harris M, Millar T, Hayward A, Ciccarone D, Morley KI

Heroin type, injecting behavior, and HIV transmission. A simulation model of HIV incidence and prevalence.

PloS one

Bobashev G, Mars S, Murphy N, Dreisbach C, Zule W, Ciccarone D

Fentanyl: the many challenges ahead.

Addiction (Abingdon, England)

Mars SG, Rosenblum D, Ciccarone D

Illicit fentanyls in the opioid street market: desired or imposed?

Addiction (Abingdon, England)

Mars SG, Rosenblum D, Ciccarone D

Fentanyl test strips as an opioid overdose prevention strategy: Findings from a syringe services program in the Southeastern United States.

The International journal on drug policy

Peiper NC, Clarke SD, Vincent LB, Ciccarone D, Kral AH, Zibbell JE

Drawing attention to a neglected injecting-related harm: a systematic review of AA amyloidosis among people who inject drugs.

Addiction (Abingdon, England)

Harris M, Brathwaite R, Scott J, Gilchrist G, Ciccarone D, Hope V, McGowan CR

'Care and Prevent': rationale for investigating skin and soft tissue infections and AA amyloidosis among people who inject drugs in London.

Harm reduction journal

Harris M, Brathwaite R, McGowan CR, Ciccarone D, Gilchrist G, McCusker M, O'Brien K, Dunn J, Scott J, Hope V

Opioid Crisis: No Easy Fix to Its Social and Economic Determinants.

American journal of public health

Dasgupta N, Beletsky L, Ciccarone D

Sold as Heroin: Perceptions and Use of an Evolving Drug in Baltimore, MD.

Journal of psychoactive drugs

Mars SG, Ondocsin J, Ciccarone D

Fentanyl in the US heroin supply: A rapidly changing risk environment.

The International journal on drug policy

Ciccarone D

Heroin uncertainties: Exploring users' perceptions of fentanyl-adulterated and -substituted 'heroin'.

The International journal on drug policy

Ciccarone D, Ondocsin J, Mars SG

The Textures of Heroin: User Perspectives on "Black Tar" and Powder Heroin in Two U.S. Cities.

Journal of psychoactive drugs

Mars SG, Bourgois P, Karandinos G, Montero F, Ciccarone D

Heroin-related overdose: The unexplored influences of markets, marketing and source-types in the United States.

Social science & medicine (1982)

Mars SG, Fessel JN, Bourgois P, Montero F, Karandinos G, Ciccarone D

Fire in the vein: Heroin acidity and its proximal effect on users' health.

The International journal on drug policy

Ciccarone D, Harris M

The relationship between US heroin market dynamics and heroin-related overdose, 1992-2008.

Addiction (Abingdon, England)

Unick G, Rosenblum D, Mars S, Ciccarone D

Urban segregation and the US heroin market: a quantitative model of anthropological hypotheses from an inner-city drug market.

The International journal on drug policy

Rosenblum D, Castrillo FM, Bourgois P, Mars S, Karandinos G, Unick GJ, Ciccarone D

"Every 'never' I ever said came true": transitions from opioid pills to heroin injecting.

The International journal on drug policy

Mars SG, Bourgois P, Karandinos G, Montero F, Ciccarone D

The entry of Colombian-sourced heroin into the US market: the relationship between competition, price, and purity.

The International journal on drug policy

Rosenblum D, Unick GJ, Ciccarone D

Saying goodbye to high-dead-space syringes.

The International journal on drug policy

Ciccarone D

A technology-enhanced medical note-writing workshop.

Medical education

Ciccarone D, Yu T, Nye H, Chang A

A SBIRT curriculum for medical residents: development of a performance feedback tool to build learner confidence.

Substance abuse

Hettema JE, Ratanawongsa N, Manuel JK, Ciccarone D, Coffa D, Jain S, Lum PJ

Henceforth harm reduction?

The International journal on drug policy

Ciccarone D

Impact of South American heroin on the US heroin market 1993-2004.

The International journal on drug policy

Ciccarone D, Unick GJ, Kraus A

Understanding illicit substance use in the real world.

Medical education

Ciccarone D, Jain S, Bourgois P

Interactive "Video Doctor" counseling reduces drug and sexual risk behaviors among HIV-positive patients in diverse outpatient settings.

PloS one

Gilbert P, Ciccarone D, Gansky SA, Bangsberg DR, Clanon K, McPhee SJ, Calderón SH, Bogetz A, Gerbert B

Nationwide increase in the number of hospitalizations for illicit injection drug use-related infective endocarditis.

Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America

Cooper HL, Brady JE, Ciccarone D, Tempalski B, Gostnell K, Friedman SR

The CASE adherence index: A novel method for measuring adherence to antiretroviral therapy.

AIDS care

Mannheimer SB, Mukherjee R, Hirschhorn LR, Dougherty J, Celano SA, Ciccarone D, Graham KK, Mantell JE, Mundy LM, Eldred L, Botsko M, Finkelstein R

Correlates of sex without serostatus disclosure among a national probability sample of HIV patients.

AIDS and behavior

Duru OK, Collins RL, Ciccarone DH, Morton SC, Stall R, Beckman R, Miu A, Kanouse DE

Reframing "prevention with positives": incorporating counseling techniques that improve the health of HIV-positive patients.

AIDS patient care and STDs

Gerbert B, Danley DW, Herzig K, Clanon K, Ciccarone D, Gilbert P, Allerton M

Naloxone distribution and cardiopulmonary resuscitation training for injection drug users to prevent heroin overdose death: a pilot intervention study.

Journal of urban health : bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine

Seal KH, Thawley R, Gee L, Bamberger J, Kral AH, Ciccarone D, Downing M, Edlin BR

HIV prevalence and risk behaviors among men who have sex with men and inject drugs in San Francisco.

Journal of urban health : bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine

Kral AH, Lorvick J, Ciccarone D, Wenger L, Gee L, Martinez A, Edlin BR

The cost of HIV medication adherence support interventions: Results of a cross-site evaluation

AIDS care

Schackman BR, Finkelstein R, Neukermans CP, Lewis L, Eldred L, Ciccarone D et al.

Integrating HIV risk reduction into the medical curriculum.

Medical education

Ciccarone D, Coffin P, Preer G

Origins of community strains of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America

Charlebois ED, Perdreau-Remington F, Kreiswirth B, Bangsberg DR, Ciccarone D, Diep BA, Ng VL, Chansky K, Edlin BR, Edlin B, Chambers HF

Attitudes about prescribing take-home naloxone to injection drug users for the management of heroin overdose: a survey of street-recruited injectors in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Journal of urban health : bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine

Seal KH, Downing M, Kral AH, Singleton-Banks S, Hammond JP, Lorvick J, Ciccarone D, Edlin BR

Sex without disclosure of positive HIV serostatus in a US probability sample of persons receiving medical care for HIV infection.

American journal of public health

Ciccarone DH, Kanouse DE, Collins RL, Miu A, Chen JL, Morton SC, Stall R

Is it justifiable to withhold treatment for hepatitis C from illicit-drug users?

The New England journal of medicine

Edlin BR, Seal KH, Lorvick J, Kral AH, Ciccarone DH, Moore LD, Lo B

Risk factors for skin and soft-tissue abscesses among injection drug users: a case-control study.

Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America

Murphy EL, DeVita D, Liu H, Vittinghoff E, Leung P, Ciccarone DH, Edlin BR

Provider assessment of adherence to HIV antiretroviral therapy.

Journal of acquired immune deficiency syndromes (1999)

Bangsberg DR, Hecht FM, Clague H, Charlebois ED, Ciccarone D, Chesney M, Moss A

Soft Tissue Infections Among Injection Drug Users - San Francisco, California, 1996-2000

JAMA

Ciccarone D, Bamberger J, Kral A, Hobart CJ, Moon A, Edlin BR, Harris HW, Young DM, Bourgois P, Murphy EL.

The cost-effectiveness of voluntary counseling and testing of hospital inpatients for HIV infection.

JAMA

Lurie P, Avins AL, Phillips KA, Kahn JG, Lowe RA, Ciccarone D

The cost-effectiveness of HIV testing of physicians and dentists in the United States.

JAMA

Phillips KA, Lowe RA, Kahn JG, Lurie P, Avins AL, Ciccarone D

Undiagnosed HIV infection in acute care hospitals.

The New England journal of medicine

Lurie P, Lowe RA, Avins AL, Phillips KA, Kahn JG, Franks PE, Ciccarone DH