Gráinne Cousins

Dr. Gráinne Cousins is an Associate Professor at the School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI). She specializes in epidemiology of drug use, with a focus on opioid agonist treatment, gender disparities in drug-related mortality, and prescription drug misuse. Her work integrates data linkage studies, cohort analyses, and Delphi consensus methods. She holds memberships in the Psychological Society of Ireland and the Society for the Study of Addiction, and serves on the National Drug Strategy Research Sub-Committee since 2022.

Dr. Cousins completed her BA in Applied Psychology at University College Cork (1996–1999), MSc in Health Psychology at NUI Galway (2000–2002), and PhD in Population Health Sciences at RCSI (2006–2009). She was a Post-doctoral Research Fellow at the HRB Centre for Primary Care Research (2009–2013) before joining RCSI as a Lecturer in 2013, progressing to Senior Lecturer (2017) and Associate Professor (2023).

Her research interests include pharmacoepidemiology, population health, and opioid substitution treatment. She leads HRB-funded projects on drug misuse trends, OAT adaptations during the pandemic, and prescription drug-related harms. Recent publications analyze overdose mortality, pandemic treatment adjustments, and gabapentinoid prescribing patterns.

Dr. Cousins supervises 13 completed PhD/MSc students and currently guides 3 Professional Doctorate candidates. She teaches Research Methods, Global Health, and Clinical Research Skills across undergraduate and postgraduate programs. Her grants include HRB awards for OAT continuity during crises and prescription drug misuse analysis (2021–2024).