Tower of treatment, methadone pioneer Kreek dies at age 84

Abstract

Mary Jeanne Kreek, M.D., loved by patients and revered by clinicians and researchers, died March 27 at age 84. With Vincent Dole, M.D., and Marie Nyswander, M.D., Kreek, as a young researcher in their lab, helped discover methadone as a treatment for opioid use disorder. Until her death, she was the Patrick E. and Beatrice M. Haggerty Professor and a senior attending physician at The Rockefeller University. Her landmark studies focused on heroin addiction. Her work — and her kindness and emotional generosity to all she came in contact with — will be sorely missed.