Dr. Brower's research focuses
on how to improve treatment for addiction by studying the
biological and psychosocial predictors of relapse and recovery.
Much more is known about the psychosocial predictors than
the biological ones. Thus, Dr. Brower is investigating electrophysiological
predictors of relapse during sleep and waking as well as genetic
factors. His collaborators in this work include Drs. Todd
Arnedt, Roseanne Armitage, Deirdre Conroy, and Robert Hoffmann
for sleep; Drs. Margit Burmeister and Marcin Wojnar for genetics;
and Dr. Wojnar and his colleagues at the Medical University
of Warsaw for waking electrophysiology.
Sleep disturbance has been shown
to predict relapse in alcohol-dependent patients when measured
either by self-report on clinical questionnaires or in the
sleep laboratory with polysomnography (Brower, 2003). Most
sleeping pills are addictive and thus avoided in substance-dependent
patients, but non-addictive medication (Karam-Hage & Brower,
2003) as well as behavioral therapy (Arnedt et al., 2007)
can improve sleep quality and possibly decrease relapse rates.
Among the psychosocial predictors,
scientists have been reluctant to study spiritual factors,
because of difficulties in measuring them quantitatively,
despite the general consensus in the recovering community
that spiritual factors are the most important predictors of
recovery (Robinson et al., 2007). With newer and more reliable
measures now available, Dr. Brower collaborates with Dr. Libby
Robinson to study the role of spirituality on recovery from
alcoholism.
Dr. Brower also published a recent
review of addiction pharmacotherapy (Guthrie et al., 2006)
and has participated in a number of multi-site pharmacotherapy
trials, including injected naltrexone for alcohol dependence
(Kranzler et al., 2004) and sertraline for co-occurring alcohol
dependence and major depression (Kranzler et al., 2006).
Although most of Dr. Brower’s
research pertains to alcohol dependence, he has also testified
at a Congressional Committee Hearing and written extensively
about the psychiatric and addictive effects of anabolic steroids
(Pope & Brower, 2005).
Cited articles:
Arnedt JT, Conroy DA, Brower KJ: Treatment options for sleep
disturbances during alcohol recovery. J Addict Dis 2007; 26(4):41-54.
Brower KJ: Insomnia, alcoholism and relapse. Sleep Med Rev
2003; 7(6):523 539.
Guthrie SK, Brower KJ, Karam-Hage
M: Substance-related disorders. In: Chisholm-Burns MA, Wells
BG, Schwinghammer TL, Malone PM, Kolesar JM, Rotschafer JC,
DiPiro JT, (eds): Pharmacotherapy Principles & Practice, First
Edition. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2007, pp. 525-548.
Karam-Hage M, Brower KJ: An open
pilot study of gabapentin vs. trazodone to treat insomnia
in alcoholic outpatients. Psychiatry Clin Neurosci 2003; 57:542-544.
Kranzler HR, Mueller T, Cornelius
J, Pettinati HM, Moak D, Martin PR, Anthenelli R, Brower KJ,
O'Malley S, Mason BJ, Hasin D, Keller M: Sertraline treatment
of co-occurring alcohol dependence and major depression. J
Clin Psychopharmacol 2006;26:13-20.
Kranzler HR, Wesson DR, Billot
L, for the DAS Naltrexone Study Group: Naltrexone depot for
treatment of alcohol dependence: a multi-center randomized,
placebo-controlled clinical trial. Alcohol Clin Exp Res 2004;
28:1051-1059.
Pope HG Jr, Brower KJ: Anabolic-androgenic
steroid abuse. In: Sadock BJ, Sadock VA: (eds): Kaplan & Sadock’s
Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry/VIII. Baltimore: Williams
& Wilkins, 2005, pp. 1318-1328.
Robinson EAR, Cranford JA, Webb
JR, Brower KJ. Six-month changes in spirituality, religiousness,
and heavy drinking in a treatment-seeking sample. J. Stud.
Alcohol Drugs 2007; 68:282-290.
Email:kbrower@umich.edu
Curriculum Vitae (PDF)
