Substance Abuse Section

The University of Michigan Addiction Research Center

Founded in 1987, the Addiction Research Center is the research and research training arm of the Section. Ongoing research projects examine essential aspects of substance abuse ranging from genes to health care use. Currently, 17 external projects, (virtually all from NIH) are funded. Awards total $3.34 million dollars in annual direct costs, and $1.09 million in annual indirects. This accounts for 22% of the Department of Psychiatry's direct cost activity and 25% of its annual indirect cost activity. The Center is also the site of an ongoing NIH MERIT award to Dr. Zucker.

UMARC has also, over the past decade produced a well developed infrastructure and recruitment base for clinical research. We have national recognition for the conduct of clinical trials of alcohol dependence and sleep and we are the only site in the country that has two NIAAA funded treatment research projects addressing sleep and alcohol dependence. These involve both pharmacotherapy and behavioral therapy trials.

UMARC scientists conduct research on a number of thematically connected projects committed to understanding the clinical manifestations, health care consequences, and etiology/course of substance use disorder across the life cycle. Primary work to date has focused on alcohol, with a secondary focus on nicotine and marijuana. The Center's portfolio is rapidly developing in the latter areas. Studies have identified early psychosocial factors in the development of risk, have examined the role of neurocognitive vulnerability in creating substance abuse risk, and a recent initiative is heavily invested in understanding the linkages between genetic variation, brain activity, and behavioral risk over time. In addition to basic etiologic studies, projects examine the role of psychiatric comorbidity in treatment outcome, serotonergic dysregulation and clinical symptomatology, the identification and assessment of older alcoholics, screening and brief intervention for pregnant women and older problem drinkers, the role spirituality plays in alcohol treatment, and pharmacotherapy of alcoholism and comorbid insomnia.

Other current and past studies include: a double-blind sertraline trial, a study of risk factors for alcohol consumption during pregnancy, a study to identify molecular genetic markers in the serotonergic system and their association with antisocial alcoholism, post-mortem studies of serotonergic dysregulation in alcoholics, a project on the effectiveness of tailored messages in the emergency room, factors influencing relapse and relapse prevention among treated alcoholics, and a study of sensitivity to alcoholism and the effects of naltrexone in altering this response. These projects, as well as those mentioned above, are illustrations of the 28 projects that currently are ongoing in the Section. Another half dozen projects are in different stages of development and pilot testing.

See our major research themes:

Although UMARC's administrative base is within Psychiatry, collaborating scientists from numerous areas within the University are either project directors or collaborators with its research operations. Current scientific affiliations involve the Departments of Human Genetics, Internal Medicine, Neurology, Pharmacology, Nuclear Medicine, and Emergency Medicine within the University of Michigan Health System (UMHS), the Departments of Psychology and of Statistics within the College of Literature, Science and the Arts, the School of Public Health including the Departments of Biostatistics, Epidemiology, Health and Behavior and Health Education, the Institute of Social Research (Survey Research Center, and Research Center for Group Dynamics), the Center for Statistical Consultation and Research, the Center for Clinical Investigation and Therapeutics (UM Health System), and the Ann Arbor Veterans Affairs Health System. Clinical affiliations involve the Ann Arbor Veterans Affairs Health System, the University of Michigan Addiction Treatment Services, and a number of other hospitals in Southeastern Michigan.

UMARC research collaborations outside the university involve an extensive network of relationships with investigators at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Michigan State University, Georgia State University, the University of Texas at Austin, University of Illinois at Chicago, Idaho State University, and Eastern Michigan University.