Dr. Andrew “Drew” Mattison, one of the original founders of the HIV Neurobehavioral Research Center (HNRC) at UCSD and author of the 1984 bestselling book The Male Couple, died Dec. 29 at San Diego Hospice after a battle with stomach cancer. He was 57.

HNRC director Dr. Igor Grant praised Mattison’s contributions to San Diego over the years and said that although the type of cancer Mattison had was usually fatal, Mattison did everything in his power to fight against it and lead a productive life after his diagnosis, which occurred in July 2004.

“I think Dr. Mattison took a very optimistic, proactive view of it – that, you know, ‘I’m going to do everything I can to beat this thing,’” Grant said. “I think most people would agree that he survived six months to a year longer than anyone would have predicted given the kind of cancer it was.”

Grant said a co-worker in his department was also diagnosed with a severe form of cancer recently, and Mattison offered support to that person.

“Drew spent some time with that individual and his significant other, and was extremely helpful,” Grant said. “He was very generous even in his own illness.”

In 1989, the HNRC became the first organized research unit in the country funded by the National Institutes of Health to explore the impact of HIV on behavior and the brain. The HNRC conducts local, national and international research devoted to advancing the knowledge of the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of HIV-related diseases as they affect the human brain and nervous system and result in the impairment of everyday functioning.

Mattison served as head of the HNRC’s participant unit for almost a decade. During that time, Grant said Mattison was integral to the unit’s success, providing creative links between the scientific-academic enterprise at UCSD and the communities in which clinicians and scientists interacted.

Mattison developed numerous outreach and information-exchange activities, leading HNRC’s Community Advisory Board and its Participant Advisory Board.

Mattison initially joined UCSD in 1975 as an instructor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine, and also taught human sexuality to UCSD medical students. He served as psychological program consultant to Thurgood Marshall College and contributed to UCSD’s Substance Abuse Committee. In 1990, he became an associate clinical professor of preventative medicine and psychiatry and family medicine, and was promoted to the level of clinical professor in 2001.

In 2000, Mattison co-founded the University of California Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research (CMCR), which researches, among other things, the medicinal uses of cannabis, as well as pain and nausea management among cancer patients. The CMCR is regarded as a model resource for health-policy planning due to its close collaboration with federal, state and academic entities. Mattison served as its co-director until 2005 before retiring due to ill health.

Grant, who was one of the other CMCR co-founders and currently serves as its director, said the impetus for the CMCR began in 1996 when California voters passed the Compassionate Use Act, an initiative that made marijuana available for medicinal purposes.

Through his leadership, Mattison made it possible to conduct groundbreaking clinical trials to explore the potential of cannabis as medicine without embroiling the research in broader social controversies, Grant said.

Mattison served as president of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality (SSSS) from 2003 to 2004. The SSSS is the oldest professional society dedicated to the advancement of knowledge concerning sexuality. He frequently provided expert opinion to governments and the media, and reviewed papers submitted to scientific journals in the field of human sexuality.

“He was a well-respected, steadfast leader, visionary and advocate for our society. His research was widely acclaimed,” SSSS executive director David Fleming said. “He was particularly interested in bringing sexual science into the public policy domain.”

Eli Coleman, Ph.D., a SSSS colleague and professor at the University of Minnesota Medical School, said Mattison was insightful in addressing contentious issues facing the GLBT community such as the AIDS epidemic and drug abuse among gay men within the circuit-party scene.

Mattison co-authored the landmark book The Male Couple in 1984 with his partner of 34 years, Dr. David McWhirter. The book was eventually translated into video. Another video, entitled Male Couples Facing AIDS, followed in 1988.

“This book helped so many gay men understand the struggles in their relationships and gave ideas and models of how they could work through conflicts to sustain their relationships,” Coleman said. “This book continues to be very relevant today.”

Grant said The Male Couple helped people change their opinions about the dynamics of gay male relationships.

“I think it debunked the idea that gay people are unstable and flip from flower to flower, and that type of thing,” Grant said. “There were people who had long-term, monogamous relationships, and they had their ups and downs just like heterosexual couples.”

Recently, Mattison conducted research related to risk behaviors in the circuit-party scene as they relate to drug use and HIV transmission. Grant said Mattison was trying to create a clever and effective safe-sex message within that setting.

“They might be engaged in unprotected sex, and so he was really the first who started looking into that, to see how big of a problem that was or wasn’t,” Grant said. Mattison also looked at crystal methamphetamine abuse and how an individual’s pattern of reasoning changes under the influence of the drug.

A public memorial service for Mattison is planned for Saturday, Feb. 18, at 10:00 a.m. at the Old Globe Theatre’s Cassius Carter Centre Stage in Balboa Park.