Dr Llew Mills
People_

Dr Llew Mills

Division Addiction Medicine, Central Clinical School
South Eastern Sydney Local Health District, Drug and Alcohol Services
Phone
+61 421 032 614
Dr Llew Mills

I am a drug and alcohol researcher with the University of Sydney Medical School, working at the Langton Centre, a drug and alcohol treatment and research centre in Surry Hills. I was also recently appointed as statistical consultant for the Drug and Alcohol Clinical Research Improvement Network (DACRIN).

The cost of addiction is enormous, for the individuals who suffer from it, their families, and society in general. I am committed to helping find new ways to treat addiction so that sufferers and their families can get closer to a normal, happy life. I have only just started on my research career but have already found the process of investigating addiction immensely rewarding, both the analytical side and the human side

During my PhD I cut my teeth testing caffeine withdrawal in heavy coffee drinkers. My thesis examined the ways that beliefs about how much of a drug we have in our body affect our perceptions of withdrawal symptoms via the placebo and nocebo effect. I found that when heavy coffee drinkers know their daily dose of caffeine has gone down it makes their withdrawal symptoms worse than if they are unaware it has gone down. I hope one day soon to test whether these findings can be used to tailor interventions to help treat people seeking drug and alcohol treatment.

Aside from addiction I have a deep and abiding interest in applied statistics and endeavour to stay on top of the newest statistical techniques that allow us to analyse the complexities of human behaviour in more nuanced and more ethical ways, such as mixed-effects models, Bayesian statistics and machine learning.

I am interested in:

1. The factors that cause and maintain addiction

2. The way that beliefs affect perceptions of withdrawal

3. Applied statistics and statistical methods (e.g. mixed-effects models, Bayesian statistics, machine learning)

4. The placebo and nocebo effect

5. Point of Care Trials

Addiction medicine

Abnormal Psychology

Science and Statistics

Psychometrics and Individual Differences

  • Comparing withdrawal from depot buprenorphine to withdrawal from sublingual buprenorphine in an inpatient population of opioid agonsit treatment seekers
  • A randomised placebo-controlled trial of nabiximols for the treatment of cannabis dependence.
  • The Clinical Outcomes and Quality Indicators (COQI) Project
  • The Cannabis as Medicine Survey (CAMS)
  • Exercise and Cannabis Withdrawal - an RCT testing the effect of exercise on cannabis withdrawal
  • Cannabidiol for Treatment of Alcohol Withdrawal
  • MA Data - Using electronic clinical information systems to assess outcomes for people being treated for methamphetamine dependence
  • Updating and validating the cannabis withdrawal scale (CWS)
  • Specialty of Addiction Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Public Health, University of Sydney
  • Drug and Alcohol Services, South Eastern Sydney Local Health District
  • Drug and Alcohol Clinical Research and IMprovement Network (DACRIN)

Travel Award, Society for Interdisciplinary Placebo Studies Conference (Leiden, The Netherlands, 2017)

Australian Postgraduate Award (2013-2016)

Neurosciences and Mental Health

Publications

Journals

  • Mills, L., Arnold, J., Suraev, A., Abelev, S., Zhou, C., Arkell, T., McGregor, I., Lintzeris, N. (2024). Medical cannabis use in Australia seven years after legalisation: findings from the online Cannabis as Medicine Survey 2022–2023 (CAMS-22). Harm Reduction Journal, 21(1). [More Information]
  • Trevitt, B., Hayes, V., Deacon, R., Mills, L., Demirkol, A., Lintzeris, N. (2024). The impact of changes in opioid dependency treatment upon COVID-19 transmission in Sydney, Australia: a retrospective longitudinal observational study. BMC Public Health, 24(1). [More Information]
  • Arkell, T., Abelev, S., Mills, L., Suraev, A., Arnold, J., Lintzeris, N., McGregor, I. (2023). Driving-related behaviors, attitudes, and perceptions among Australian medical cannabis users: results from the CAMS 20 survey. Journal of Cannabis Research, 5(1). [More Information]

2024

  • Mills, L., Arnold, J., Suraev, A., Abelev, S., Zhou, C., Arkell, T., McGregor, I., Lintzeris, N. (2024). Medical cannabis use in Australia seven years after legalisation: findings from the online Cannabis as Medicine Survey 2022–2023 (CAMS-22). Harm Reduction Journal, 21(1). [More Information]
  • Trevitt, B., Hayes, V., Deacon, R., Mills, L., Demirkol, A., Lintzeris, N. (2024). The impact of changes in opioid dependency treatment upon COVID-19 transmission in Sydney, Australia: a retrospective longitudinal observational study. BMC Public Health, 24(1). [More Information]

2023

  • Arkell, T., Abelev, S., Mills, L., Suraev, A., Arnold, J., Lintzeris, N., McGregor, I. (2023). Driving-related behaviors, attitudes, and perceptions among Australian medical cannabis users: results from the CAMS 20 survey. Journal of Cannabis Research, 5(1). [More Information]
  • Black, E., Mammen, K., Deacon, R., Ezard, N., Mills, L., Dunlop, A., Montebello, M., Reid, D., Childs, S., Bruno, R., Lintzeris, N., et al (2023). Health and social characteristics of clients reporting amphetamine type substance use at entry to public alcohol and other drug services in New South Wales, Australia, 2016–2019. Drug and Alcohol Review, 42(2), 389-400. [More Information]
  • Deacon, R., Mills, L., Bruno, R., Mammen, K., Dunlop, A., Childs, S., Shakeshaft, A., Holmes, J., Lintzeris, N. (2023). Identifying thresholds for clinically meaningful change among clients of drug and alcohol services using the Australian Treatment Outcomes Profile. Addiction, 118(12), 2457-2465. [More Information]

2022

  • Mills, L., Dunlop, A., Montebello, M., Copeland, J., Bruno, R., Jefferies, M., McGregor, I., Lintzeris, N. (2022). Correlates of treatment engagement and client outcomes: results of a randomised controlled trial of nabiximols for the treatment of cannabis use disorder. Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy, 17(1). [More Information]
  • Mammen, K., Mills, L., Deacon, R., Bruno, R., Dunlop, A., Holmes, J., Luksza, J., Shakeshaft, A., Farrell, M., Lintzeris, N. (2022). Determining clinical cutoff scores for the Australian Treatment Outcomes Profile psychological health, physical health and quality of life questions. Drug and Alcohol Review, 41(1), 106-113. [More Information]
  • Wilson, H., Schulz, M., Mills, L., Lintzeris, N. (2022). Feasibility and outcomes of a general practice and specialist alcohol and other drug collaborative care program in Sydney, Australia. Australian Journal of Primary Health, 28(2), 158-163. [More Information]

2021

  • Deacon, R., Mammen, K., Bruno, R., Mills, L., Dunlop, A., Holmes, J., Jefferies, M., Hall, M., Shakeshaft, A., Farrell, M., Lintzeris, N., et al (2021). Assessing the concurrent validity, inter-rater reliability and test–re-test reliability of the Australian Treatment Outcomes Profile (ATOP) in alcohol and opioid treatment populations. Addiction, 116(5), 1245-1255. [More Information]
  • Lee, J., Mills, L., Hayes, B., Livesey, E. (2021). Modelling generalisation gradients as augmented Gaussian functions. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 74(1), 106-121. [More Information]

2020

  • Deacon, R., Mammen, K., Holmes, J., Dunlop, A., Bruno, R., Mills, L., Graham, R., Lintzeris, N. (2020). Assessing the validity of the Australian Treatment Outcomes Profile for telephone administration in drug health treatment populations. Drug and Alcohol Review, 39(5), 441-446. [More Information]
  • Lintzeris, N., Mills, L., Dunlop, A., Copeland, J., McGregor, I., Bruno, R., Kirby, A., Montebello, M., Hall, M., Jefferies, M., Kevin, R., Bhardwaj, A. (2020). Cannabis use in patients 3 months after ceasing nabiximols for the treatment of cannabis dependence: Results from a placebo-controlled randomised trial. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 215, 108220. [More Information]
  • Lintzeris, N., Mills, L., Suraev, A., Bravo, M., Arkell, T., Arnold, J., Benson, M., McGregor, I. (2020). Medical cannabis use in the Australian community following introduction of legal access: the 2018–2019 Online Cross-Sectional Cannabis as Medicine Survey (CAMS-18). Harm Reduction Journal, 17(1), 37. [More Information]

2019

  • Lintzeris, N., Bhardwaj, A., Mills, L., Dunlop, A., Copeland, J., McGregor, I., Bruno, R., Gugusheff, J., Phung, N., Montebello, M., Kirby, A., Allsop, D., et al (2019). Nabiximols for the Treatment of Cannabis Dependence A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Internal Medicine, 179(9), 1242-1253. [More Information]
  • Mills, L., Boakes, R., Colagiuri, B. (2019). The effect of dose expectancies on caffeine withdrawal symptoms during tapered dose reduction. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 33(8), 994-1002. [More Information]
  • Norberg, M., Newins, A., Crone, C., Ham, L., Henry, A., Mills, L., Dennis, P. (2019). Why are caffeinated alcoholic beverages especially risky? Addictive Behaviors, 98, 1-6. [More Information]

2018

  • Meiser, B., Quinn, V., Mitchell, G., Tucker, K., Watts, K., Rahman, B., Peate, M., Saunders, C., Geelhoed, E., Gleeson, M., Barlow-Stewart, K., Bowen, M., Kirk, J., et al (2018). Psychological outcomes and surgical decisions after genetic testing in women newly diagnosed with breast cancer with and without a family history. European Journal of Human Genetics, 26(7), 972-983. [More Information]

2017

  • Mills, L., Dar-Nimrod, I., Colagiuri, B. (2017). Effect of Genetic Information and Information About Caffeine Content on Caffeine Withdrawal Symptoms. Scientific Reports, 7(1), 1-9. [More Information]
  • Norberg, M., Newins, A., Mills, L., Ham, L. (2017). Psychometric Validation of the Anticipated Effects of Alcohol Mixed With Energy Drinks Scale. Psychological Assessment, 29(12), 1505-1516. [More Information]

2016

  • Mills, L., Boakes, R., Colagiuri, B. (2016). Placebo caffeine reduces withdrawal in abstinent coffee drinkers. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 30(4), 388-394. [More Information]

Selected Grants

2022

  • A randomised controlled trial of cannabidiol (CBD) in the treatment of cannabis dependence, Lintzeris N, Lubman D, Doyle M, Dunlop A, Mills L, Harrod M, Arunogiri S, Malouf P, Haber P, Freeman T, Haber P, National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)/Clinical Trials and Cohort Studies

2019

  • Externally funded position - For Dr Llewellyn Mills, Mills L, South Eastern Sydney Local Health District/Externally Funded Position

Techinical Skills

Advanced statistical skills, including machine learning (e.g. penalised regression, random forests), ROC analysis, survival analysis, scale validation, mixed-effects modeling (incl. non-linear) and Bayesian statistics.

Advanced skills in R(analysis,preprocessing,visualisation,computationalmodelling),working skills in Python, Stata, SPSS. Advanced skills in Redcap survey software.

In the media

- Phone interview with Stephen Brooke, reported in Sunday Age and Sydney Morning Herald, see https://www.smh.com.au/healthcare/more-acceptable-now-medicinal-cannabis-use-rising-passes-1-million-patients-20230511-p5d7oe.html

- Phone Interviews: Sydney drive time, 14/02/2023, Zoom interview with Mateusz Mroz (Newseria: Polish Private News Agency Website) 15/02/2023; ABC Radio Wollongong Breakfast drivetime with Melinda James, 15/02/2023; ABC Radio Canberra. Afternoons with Alice Matthews, 15/02/2023; ABC Radio Melbourne Drive: Raph Epstein, 15/02/2023; ABC Radio Tasmania. Evenings with Helen Shield (statewide), 15/02/2023; ABC Radio Canberra: Canberra Weekender with Tatjana Clancy, 18/02/2023; ChaiFM South Africa: Morning Mayhem with Howard Feldman, 23/03/2023

- Answering interview questions via email

o Nancy Schimelpfening (Healthline: 16/02/2023 https://www.healthline.com/health-news/caffeine-withdrawal-drinking-decaf-can-help-reduce-painful-symptoms

o Robby Berman (Healthline: 16/02/2023; see https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/caffeine-withdrawal-good-decaf-coffee-reduce-symptoms#What-caused-the-effect)

o Shiv Sudhakar (Fox News Digital, health and lifestyle, see https://www.foxnews.com/health/coffee-quitters-help-decaf-help-reduce-withdrawal-symptoms) 20/02/23

o Imma Perfetto, Cosmos magazine, 16/02/23 see https://cosmosmagazine.com/health/decaf-coffee-caffeine-withdrawal/

o Cara Murez, USNEWS, see https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2023-02-17/kicking-the-coffee-habit-but-scared-of-withdrawal-try-decaf

o Matthew Warren, British Psychological Society website, see https://www.bps.org.uk/research-digest/decaf-coffee-reduces-caffeine-withdrawal-even-when-you-know-its-decaf

- Phone Interviews:ABC News Radio: Morning Show with Sarah Morice, 08/12/2023; ABC Radio Canberra with Georgia Stynes, 11/12/2023; ABC Radio Darwin with Lisa Pellegrino 11/12/2023;

- Answering questions by email:

o ABC News website: https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2023-12-08/caffeine-withdrawal-headache-coffee-brain-neurobiology-adenosine/103173730

ABC Life Article: Can you be addicted to coffee and is it really bad for you? 02 May, 2019, see https://www.abc.net.au/everyday/coffee-addiction-how-much-is-too-much-withdrawal-symptoms/11028304

  • Weekend Australian Article, 23-24 April, 2016 (see CV Docs)