The University of Michigan Substance Abuse Section

The Section has a commitment to educate future generations of medical scientists and medical scientist/clinicians, who will in turn be able to educate, treat, and carry out the next generation of research in this area. The Section's educational and clinical agenda is to provide exposure to and experience in the understanding and treatment of the broad spectrum of drug disorders. These activities are sustained by way of formal teaching commitments on the part of Section faculty and staff, as well as through involvement in ongoing clinical operations, located primarily at UMATS and the Ann Arbor Veterans Affairs Healthcare System. At both of these sites, the focus is on the full spectrum of drugs of abuse/addiction.

Medical education lecture sequences taught by Section faculty include the M2 Neuroscience Sequence on Substance Abuse (Dr. Brower), the M3 clinical rotation in addiction medicine (Dr. Brower), and a number of M4 Electives including Addiction Psychiatry, Health Services Research, and Multiculturalism and Addiction (Drs. Barry, Blow, and Brower). In addition, Section faculty supervise the PGY I clinical rotation on Addiction Psychiatry, and a PGY II rotation on Addiction Training of Family Medicine residents.

Section members also take part in a wide variety of teaching activities across the University. At the undergraduate level, courses include an ongoing research laboratory in psychopathology in the Department of Psychology on "Behavioral Research in Community Settings." This 12 month sequence, run by Drs. Zucker, Blow and Flynn, enrolls approximately 40 students a year. It serves to expose students to the spectrum of substance abuse research going on in the Section, allows them to make more focused career decisions because of their close exposure to senior scientists, and also serves as a useful labor resource for ongoing Sectional research programs. Thus the Section has had a significant involvement in sharing the intellectual contributions of the Department with the broader University community. These courses convey some of the allure and challenge of psychiatric content to undergraduates, and have the potential to recruit students on a medical career track (a substantial number of the College of Literature, Science and the Arts student body) into this specialty.

Formal Research Training and Clinical Training Programs

The Section carries on three formal training programs: the Multidisciplinary Alcoholism Research Training Program and the Addiction Psychiatry Training Program. By the end of the past year, training had been accomplished successfully for 26 trainees (7 M.D.s, 19Ph.D.s). An interdisciplinary faculty from the Departments of Psychiatry, Psychology, Pharmacology, Neurology, Emergency Medicine, the Institute for Social Research, and a number of other university-wide Centers provides a broad range of mentored research opportunities. Fellowships offer the opportunity to develop an integrated research program and enhance skills necessary for a successful academic/research career. In addition to the primary emphasis on research development, fellows participate in a broad menu of content relevant courses and workshops to develop their methodological expertise. Trainees also complete a web-based research responsibility training called PEERRS. Fellows attend quarterly UMARC Fellow meetings and monthly research seminars, pertinent UM Substance Abuse Research Center (UMSARC) seminars and interdisciplinary lectures, and Department of Psychiatry Grand Rounds.

The activity of program graduates since their departure, as well as the quality and activity of currently ongoing program participants, indicate that training activity has been highly successful in recruiting and placing individuals in academic track research careers where they have continued to be productive researchers. Of the 26 current completors, 75 percent are currently in primarily research or research/academic positions in university settings. Over the course of the program, an effective track record in the training of minority fellows has also been established; this has involved the training of seven minority researchers.

In addition, the Section runs an ACGME accredited Addiction Psychiatry Fellowship Program. This program is a one-year, post-residency, clinical training program for psychiatrists seeking specialty training in addiction psychiatry. Formal approval from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education was awarded in 1997. Successful completion of the 1-year clinical track qualifies psychiatrists to apply for subspecialty certification in addiction psychiatry from the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. Two training slots per year are available in the program.

Other Educational Activities

The Section also runs an annual Addiction Psychiatry Resident's Day. This activity, led by Dr. Brower, is attended by psychiatry residents and other substance abuse professionals from the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, Wayne State University, Henry Ford Hospital and the University of Toledo.