The University of Michigan Substance Abuse Section

CONTENTS

Contact Information

Mission and Activities

Organization and Collaborations

Educational Activity

Major Research Themes

External Grant Activity

The Section's primary mission historically has been research of clinical relevance to the onset diagnosis, treatment and course of subtance use disorders. This has involved long-term etiologic studies of risk, onset, and clinical course, neuroimaging, and genetics projects on basic mechanisms (focusing on the serotonergic and mu opioid systems), pharmacotherapy trials, several clinical and health services outcome studies, and a number of clinical trials of behavioral interventions for early identification and treatment. The work has involved close collaborations with the Departments of Neurology, Pharmacology, Human Genetics, Emergency Medicine, Obstetrics and Gynecology and the Sleep and Chronophysiology Lab in the Medical Center, as well as with faculty in the School of Public Health (Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Health Behavior and Health Education), the College of Literature, Science and the Arts (primarily Psychology and statistics), and with the University's Institute for Social Research and its Transportation Research Institute. The long history of these activities provides a deep experience base in the conduct of complex clinical protocols over long periods of time, as well as the conduct of more focused laboratory and imaging studies on basic mechanisms involved in the addictive process. Related to this point, although the Section sustains major clinical as well as teaching missions, its major funding structure is external to the Department by way of NIH sponsored research activity.

The Section's primary mission is the contribution of new knowledge about the causes, consequences, and treatment of substance abuse. Parallel to this activity, Section faculty also have responsibility for the Department's educational and training needs for substance abuse teaching at the medical student, resident, and specialty training level, and also provide research training for the development of the next generation of research scientists. To carry out these activities as noted above, the Section has several training programs: one in Addiction Psychiatry, another is a National Institutes of Health (NIAAA) supported research training program for the career development of post-residency physicians, post-doctoral behavioral scientists and pre-doctoral students interested in an alcohol research career; a third is a jointly NIH Fogarty International Center/NIDA program for the development of subtance abuse research infrastructure in Central and Eastern Europe. The Section also provides specialty substance abuse clinical services under the aegis of the Section's clinical arm, (University of Michigan Addiction Treatment Services).