Multidisciplinary Alcoholism Research Training Program

University Of Michigan At Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor MI

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

Public health efforts to prevent consequences associated with alcohol use are urgently needed. For example, ~140,000 deaths, 31% of driving-related fatalities, 27% of non-traffic injury-related fatalities, 28.1% of firearm-related suicide deaths, and 30.6% of opioid overdose deaths, and are attributable to alcohol. This T32 renewal application seeks to obtain continued support for the Multidisciplinary Alcoholism Research Training Program at the University of Michigan (UM), entering its 33rd year of funding from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). The proposed program will train the next generation of scientists to enhance understanding of the mechanisms and clinical interventions to prevent the escalation of alcohol and drug use, and recovery from substance use disorders. Our program philosophy has evolved to reflect the changing needs of individuals facing alcohol-related problems, with the core tenets including a multidisciplinary, developmental lifespan perspective to enhance impact, including mechanistic research as well as service delivery. Although our core emphasis is focused on alcohol, our success reflects our ability to adapt to address the changing landscape of other drug use, particularly poly-substance use, as well as scientific advances in areas such as neuroscience, digital technology, adaptive intervention designs, and computational psychiatry. We focus holistically on understanding risk and protective factors across the social-ecology, with community engaged partnerships with individuals with lived experience to enhance relevance and impact, including a focus on comorbid health conditions (e.g., sleep, pain, mental health, suicide, violence). Funded in 1990, our program has trained 64 research fellows (with 4 currently in training), including 52 postdoctoral fellows, of whom 11 are physician scientists, with an excellent track record of success as researchers in the alcohol and drug field. Over the proposed 5-year training period, we plan to continue training 5 fellows per year. The UM Addiction Center in the University of Michigan (UM) Department of Psychiatry houses the program, with 17 addiction center mentoring faculty, with grant funding annual direct costs of nearly $14 million, combined with state-of-the-art training opportunities in theory, research, clinical experiences, and career development skills. The UM Addiction Center research is focused on: 1) Etiology, Neuroimaging, and Cognition; 2) Epidemiology and Predictive Modeling; 3) Digital Prevention and Early Intervention; 4) Health Services Research and Comorbidity; 5) Treatment Access, Delivery and Implementation; and (6) Methodology and Adaptive Interventions. Led by a Director and Associate Directors, this program consists of several core elements during the 2-year training, including a mentored research relationship that is a matrix to scaffold trainees to enhance success, tailored research and didactic experiences, clinical exposure for translational researchers, and increasing independence over time. This program renewal will catalyze trainee’s career trajectory to enhance impact on understanding, preventing, and treating alcohol and drug problems