Rate My Professor Rebecca McKetin

Professor Rebecca McKetin (BSc(Psychol)Hons, PhD) is a Professor at the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC) in the Faculty of Medicine & Health at the University of New South Wales. She leads a program of research into stimulant use epidemiology and interventions, with a focus on methamphetamine use patterns, harms, and treatment. McKetin established the first international longitudinal treatment outcomes study for methamphetamine dependence, the Methamphetamine Treatment Evaluation Study (MATES), a three-year prospective cohort of 501 people, which demonstrated the effectiveness of community-based treatments. She has adapted indirect prevalence estimation methods to quantify dependent methamphetamine users in Australia and contributed to regional monitoring systems for methamphetamine and other drugs in the Asia Pacific. Her research has been pivotal in quantifying risks of psychosis, violence, and other mental health outcomes associated with methamphetamine use. Current projects include online psychological interventions such as Breaking the Ice and wadawanti, pharmacotherapy trials including the Tina Trial, N-ICE trial, and LiMA study for methamphetamine dependence, novel responses to methamphetamine use in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities through NIMAC, and the OASIS project developing a national data linkage platform to monitor illicit drug use, risks, and health outcomes.

McKetin has authored numerous key publications, including the book Methamphetamine Treatment Evaluation Study (MATES): Three-year outcomes from the Sydney site (2010), book chapters such as Methamphetamine addiction (2013), and recent journal articles like Characteristics of methamphetamine-related deaths in the United Kingdom, 1997–2024 (2026, Addiction) and Methamphetamine Pharmacotherapy: A Need to Re-focus on the Complex Neurobiological Changes that Occur Both During and After Methamphetamine Use Disorder (2025, CNS Drugs). She has received the Mental Health Australia General Clinical Trials Network (MAGNET) Trial of the Year for the Tina Trial (2025), Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and Other Drugs (APSAD) Senior Scientist Award (2024), NSW/ACT Young Tall Poppy Science Award (2008), and UNSW John Yu Travel Fellowship to Europe (2003). As Senior Editor for Addiction, a United Nations consultant, and member of the Australian Institute of Policy and Science, her work influences global policy and clinical practice in substance use disorders. She has secured major NHMRC grants, including over $4 million for the OASIS project and nearly $5 million for the Tina Trial.