Substance Abuse Treatment Development and Clinical Research Mentoring

 描述(由申请者提供)：这项以患者为中心的研究的K24职业中期研究员奖的总体目标是允许France Levin博士继续扩大她的临床研究和指导计划线。两个主要目标推动了研究人员的工作：1)开发考虑药物滥用者异质性的药物疗法；2)为初级临床研究人员提供指导。尽管已经对治疗可卡因依赖的药物和疫苗进行了深入的研究，但有效的治疗方法仍然难以捉摸。物质滥用通常伴随着额外的精神共病，然而基于经验的治疗是有限的。此外，尽管大麻使用障碍的发病率很高，但评估药物疗法的研究很少。这项竞争性更新和之前由K24资助的成就的主要活动包括为可卡因和大麻依赖者开发新的联合用药治疗策略，测试新的创新行为干预措施与可卡因和其他成瘾障碍的药物疗法相结合，以及确保有希望的人类实验室结果在门诊治疗环境中得到有效测试。在K24奖项的竞争续展过程中，Levin博士将担任U54(改装后的P50)、多站点U1(改装后的R01)、R01的首席研究员，以及以医生培训为目标的T32的首席研究员。此外，她将与职业生涯中的初级同事一起担任其他几个RO1/R21的联合调查员或联合调查员，这些同事扩展了她的兴趣领域。她还将担任几个导师K奖的导师。这一应用的职业发展计划将把莱文博士的知识扩展到以技术为基础的治疗、神经成像技术和压力诱导范例领域，通过与其他研究人员的协同合作来预测治疗反应。指导计划包括不同发展水平的受训人员：1)博士后受训人员(医科学生)；2)博士后受训人员(精神科住院医师和研究员)；以及3)初级教员。职业生涯的一个主要目标是指导临床研究人员，并通过与其他调查人员的互惠合作来增进药物滥用领域的知识，这些调查人员通常是与莱文曾指导或正在指导的个人合作。公众非常关注的是缺乏对临床药物滥用研究事业感兴趣的训练有素的内科医生调查人员。通过莱文博士的活动，希望通过她的研究和与同事的合作，以及她对下一代临床研究人员的培训，改善对药物滥用者的治疗。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The overall aim of this K24 Mid-Career Investigator Award in Patient-Oriented Research is to allow Dr. Frances Levin to continue to expand her programmatic line of clinical research and mentoring. Two main objectives drive the investigator's work: 1) develop pharmacotherapies that consider the heterogeneity of substance abusers and 2) provide mentorship to junior clinical investigators. Although there has been intensive investigation of medications and vaccines to treatment cocaine dependence, effective treatments remain elusive. Substance abuse is often accompanied with additional psychiatric comorbidity yet empirically-based treatments are limited. Moreover, there has been minimal research evaluating pharmacotherapies for cannabis use disorders, despite its substantial morbidity. Primary activities for this competing renewal and prior K24-funded accomplishments include developing novel combined medication treatment strategies for cocaine and cannabis-dependent individuals, testing new innovative behavioral interventions combined with pharmacotherapies for cocaine and other addictive disorders, and ensuring that promising human laboratory findings are efficiently tested in the outpatient treatment setting. During the course of this competing renewal K24 award Dr. Levin will be Principal Investigator of a U54 (a converted P50), a multi-site U1 (a converted R01), an R01, and Principal Investigator of a T32 that targets the training of physicians. Additionally, she will serve as a co-investigator or co-investigator on several other RO1s/R21s with both junior and mid-career colleagues that extend her areas of interest. And she will serve as a mentor on several mentored K awards. The career development plan for this application will expand Dr. Levin's knowledge into the areas of technology-based treatments, neuroimaging techniques, and stress-induced paradigms to predict treatment response through synergistic collaborations with other investigators. The mentoring plan incorporates trainees at various levels of development: 1) pre- doctoral trainees (medical students); 2) postdoctoral trainees (psychiatric residents and fellows); and 3) junior faculty. An overarching career goal has been to mentor clinical investigators and advance knowledge in the substance abuse field through reciprocal collaborations with other investigators, often with individuals that Dr. Levin has mentored or is currently mentoring. Of great public concern is a dearth of adequately trained physician investigators interested in clinical substance abuse research careers. Through Dr. Levin's activities it is hoped that the treatment of substance abusers will improve, both through her research and collaborations with colleagues, and through her training of the next generation of clinical investigators.