Magdalena Cerdá, DrPH
NYU Langone Health - Professor, Department of Population Health and Department of Emergency Medicine
NYU Langone Health - Director, Center on Opioid Epidemiology and Policy
NYU Langone Health - Director, Center on Opioid Epidemiology and Policy
Education
DrPH, Public Health, Harvard University, School of Public HealthMPH, Public Health, Yale University
BS, Communication, Cornell University, Agriculture and Life Sciences
Research Interests
Opioid use disorder, Violence prevention, Firearms, Prescription drugs, Heroin, Drug overdose, Social determinants of injury, Marijuana, Homicide, Suicide BIO
Magdalena Cerdá is Professor of Population Health at New York University Langone Health and Director of the NYU Center on Opioid Epidemiology and Policy. Her work integrates approaches from social and psychiatric epidemiology to examine how social contexts shape violent behavior, substance use and common forms of mental illness. Her expertise extends to the epidemiology and policy determinants of substance use with a particular focus on opioid and marijuana use, including two NIDA-funded studies to examine the impact that prescription opioid policies and marijuana legalization have on opioid prescribing, chronic pain, and opioid overdoses, and a NIDA-funded study to examine the impact that national marijuana legalization in Uruguay has on substance use. Dr. Cerdá also uses agent-based models to simulate the potential impact of city- and neighborhood-level prevention programs and policies on violence. Prior to joining NYU, Dr. Cerdá served as the Vice-Chancellor’s Endowed Chair on Violence Prevention at UC-Davis and on the faculty at the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health. Dr. Cerdá received her DrPH from Harvard University and was a Robert Wood Johnson Health and Society Scholar at the University of Michigan. Projects
Principal Investigator, Comparative Evaluation of Overdose Prevention Programs in New York City and Rhode Island. Active
Principal Investigator, Examining the Synergistic Effects of Cannabis and Prescription Opioid Policies on Chronic Pain, Opioid Prescribing, and Opioid Overdose. Active
Principal Investigator, Large Data Spatiotemporal Modeling of Optimal Combinations of Interventions to Reduce Opioid Harm in the United States. Active
Principal Investigator, Reducing Drug-Related Mortality Using Predictive Analytics: A Randomized, Statewide, Community Intervention Trial. Active
Principal Investigator, Understanding the Short- and Long-term Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Overdose Crisis. Active
Principal Investigator, Health and Social Consequences of Marijuana Legalization. Completed
Principal Investigator, Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs and Opioid-Related Harm. Completed
Principal Investigator, Substance Abuse History, Mental Health and Firearm Violence: From Evidence To Action. Completed
Publications
Recent
Matthay EC, Gobaud AN, Branas CC, Keyes KM, Roy B, Cerda M (2025).
Assessing links between alcohol exposure and firearm violence: A scoping review update
Alcohol Research: Current Reviews, 45 (1), 1. doi: 10.35946/arcr.v45.1.01. PMCID: PMC11737877.
Assessing links between alcohol exposure and firearm violence: A scoping review update
Alcohol Research: Current Reviews, 45 (1), 1. doi: 10.35946/arcr.v45.1.01. PMCID: PMC11737877.
Borquez I, Krawczyk N, Matthay EC, Charris R, Dupre S, Mateo M, Carvacho P, Cerda M, Castillo-Carniglia A, Valenzuela E (2025).
Substance use and psychiatric outcomes following substance use disorder treatment: An 18-month prospective cohort study in Chile
Addiction [Epub 2025 Jan 9]. doi: 10.1111/add.16731.
Substance use and psychiatric outcomes following substance use disorder treatment: An 18-month prospective cohort study in Chile
Addiction [Epub 2025 Jan 9]. doi: 10.1111/add.16731.
Samples H, Lloyd K, Ryali R, Martins SS, Cerda M, Hasin D, Crystal S (2025).
Completeness and quality of comprehensive managed care data compared with fee-for-service data in national Medicaid claims from 2001 to 2019
Health Services Research [Epub 2025 Jan 2]. doi: 10.1111/1475-6773.14429.
Completeness and quality of comprehensive managed care data compared with fee-for-service data in national Medicaid claims from 2001 to 2019
Health Services Research [Epub 2025 Jan 2]. doi: 10.1111/1475-6773.14429.
Gorfinkel LR, Malte CA, Fink DS, Mannes ZL, Wall MM, Olfson M, Livne O, Keyhani S, Keyes KM, Martins SS, Cerda M, Gutkind S, Maynard CC, Saxon AJ, Simpson T, Gonsalves G, Lu H, McDowell Y, Hasin DS (2024).
Trends in opioid use disorder in the Veterans Health Administration, 2005-2022
JAMA Network Open, 7 (12), e2451821. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.51821. PMCID: PMC11662256.
Trends in opioid use disorder in the Veterans Health Administration, 2005-2022
JAMA Network Open, 7 (12), e2451821. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.51821. PMCID: PMC11662256.
Rudolph KE, Williams NT, Diaz I, Forrest S, Hoffman KL, Samples H, Olfson M, Doan L, Cerda M, Ross RK (2024).
Pain management treatments and opioid use disorder risk in Medicaid patients
American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 67 (6), 878-886. doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2024.07.006. PMCID: PMC11585455.
Pain management treatments and opioid use disorder risk in Medicaid patients
American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 67 (6), 878-886. doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2024.07.006. PMCID: PMC11585455.
Notable
Prescription drug monitoring programs and opioid overdoses: Exploring sources of heterogeneity
Epidemiology, 30 (2), 212-220. doi: 10.1097/EDE.0000000000000950. PMCID: PMC6437666.
Cerda M, Wall M, Feng T, Keyes KM, Sarvet A, Schulenberg J, O'Malley PM, Pacula RL, Galea S, Hasin DS (2017).
Association of state recreational marijuana laws with adolescent marijuana use
JAMA Pediatrics, 171 (2), 142-149. doi: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2016.3624. PMCID: PMC5365078.
Dr. Cerdá's Google Scholar Profile
Selected Press