Substance Abuse Intervention Outcome Research Training

项目总结

Project Summary The aim of our multidisciplinary program is to train post-doctoral biomedical, behavioral, health care and other public health scientists to conduct substance abuse intervention research. An overarching goal is to enhance the scientific reasoning skills needed to advance treatment research in drug abuse. From our perspective such research will benefit from interventions guided by sophisticated and fully-developed theory using a multidisciplinary framework that includes the biological, psychological, social, cultural, and policy context in which interventions occur. While other institutional training programs may address intervention research, this is the primary mission for this program. Distinctive features of our training program are: that it is interdisciplinary; that it embraces no single ideology or theory concerning the nature of dysfunctions related to drug abuse; that it provides training in early intervention and treatment along a continuum; and that it provides trainees with highly individualized opportunities to develop competitive grant applications and by doing so, contribute to the knowledge base of substance-related dysfunction and treatment. The training experience is structured to provide individualized research experience and training, complemented by a core academic curriculum to which 20% of fellows' training time is allocated. Four distinct areas are covered in the curriculum: (1) statistics/research methodology; (2) grantsmanship; (3) ethical issues in research; and (4) a two-year series of formal courses covering the etiology and treatment of substance abuse from varying disciplinary perspectives. We also subscribe to a research apprenticeship model under the guidance of the research mentor. Each fellow's individual research training experience emerges from an individualized development plan (“training plan”) developed by the fellow, agreed to by his/her mentors, and reviewed and approved by the Training Committee. The program has a primary emphasis on training in innovative treatment development and clinical trials research with a secondary emphasis on the translation of clinical research into services research. Our research in behavioral economics, neuroscience, and behavioral genetics expands our focus of translational research from basic to clinical. An additional area of emerging prominence in our training program is tobacco regulatory science. The expected training program duration is two years but on occasion we offer 3rd years of training, for example for fellows with less extensive training in research methods; fellows who are cross-training, e.g. training in Behavioral Genetics for a clinical psychologist; or for fellows in each cohort who need more time to accomplish their goals of becoming independent investigators. The program accepts on average two new fellows per year. At any given time there are likely to be four fellows in residence.