Parents' Translational Research Center

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Once adolescents have begun to experiment with alcohol and other drugs; and particularly when that experimentation escalates, parents are not prepared to handle the serious and complex Issues which so regularly occur. Thanks to NIDA sponsored research, there are now potent, evidence-based Interventions that could be useful to parents in these situations - if they were translated and communicated appropriately. To address this problem we are proposing a Parents' Translational Research Center that will bring an experienced, multidisciplinary team of researchers, communications experts, scientific advisors and parents themselves to adapt, evaluate and communicate these translated interventions directly to parents - without sacrificing the original principles of care or the therapeutic approach. This work simply could not be done by a single investigator, or by a single laboratory. The P50 mechanism offers an ideal opportunity to join the scientists who originated carefully selected evidence-based interventions with translational researchers (from TRI), researchers from other relevant disciplines (from the Science Advisory Board), specialists in communications, marketing and messaging (from the Partnership for a Drug Free America); and with experienced parents themselves (from the Parent Advisory Board). This team will integrate and synergize their individual talents to address the Center's organizing theme: translating key elements of proven clinical interventions into practical tools parents can use to address the substance use problems of their adolescents. The proposed Center will use a translation-informed approach (See NIH Roadmap) to focus on three questions Identified from interviews with thousands of parents facing substance abuse challenges with their adolescents: Project 1 (Winters, PI) will adapt and test a parent-focused version of a brief intervention for parents when they discover active substance use by their adolescent; Project 2 (McLellan, PI) will develop and test a Consumer Guide to adolescent treatment that will provide objective, comparative information on evidence-based practices available in community treatment programs; Project 3 (Kirby, PI) will adapt and test a parent-focused version of a behavioral intervention (CRAFT) to help parents engage and motivate treatment-resistant adolescents. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The research is relevant to NIDA's mission to bring evidence-based knowledge, interventions and tools into broad use to solve the public health issues associated with adolescent substance abuse. CENTER CHARACTERISTICS: