Rate My Professor Caroline Salom

Associate Professor Caroline Salom serves as Principal Research Fellow and Group Leader at the Institute for Social Science Research (ISSR), The University of Queensland, and is affiliated with the School of Public Health. She earned her PhD from the UQ School of Public Health with a thesis titled "Comorbid Alcohol and Mental Health Disorders: A Longitudinal Analysis of Development to Young Adulthood," for which she received the Dean's Award for Outstanding HDR Theses. Salom also holds a BSc (Honours) in Biochemistry and Genetics. With more than 20 years of experience in the addiction field, spanning academia and service provision, she previously conducted research in molecular biology, particularly on inflammatory diseases.

Her primary research interests lie in the epidemiology of comorbid polysubstance use and mental health disorders. As coordinator of the Drug Trends studies in Queensland, Salom oversees the Illicit Drug Reporting System (IDRS) and Ecstasy and Related Drugs Reporting System (EDRS), contributing to annual reports that inform national drug policy, such as "Queensland Drug Trends 2022: Key Findings from the Queensland IDRS Interviews" and "Australian Drug Trends 2020: Key Findings from the National IDRS Interviews" (2021). Notable peer-reviewed publications include "Predictors of comorbid polysubstance use and mental health disorders in young adults—a latent class analysis" (Salom et al., 2016, Addiction); "Externalizing and internalizing symptoms in childhood and adolescence and the risk of alcohol use disorders in young adulthood: A meta-analysis of longitudinal studies" (Meque et al., 2019); "Changes in illicit drug use and markets with the COVID-19 pandemic and associated restrictions: findings from the Ecstasy and Related Drugs Reporting System, 2016–20" (Price et al., 2022); and "Substance use and mental health disorders are linked to different forms of intimate partner violence victimisation" (Salom et al., 2015). Through her extensive body of work, Salom has made significant contributions to understanding substance use patterns, associated harms, and interventions in Australia.