Maximum Drinks, Alcoholism and Psychopathology Risk

描述（由申请人提供）：本提案的总体目标有两个：1)开发一个程序化的研究路线，旨在阐明青少年和成年期酒精相关问题的发展，利用中间表型最大24小时酒精消费量，该指标在初步研究中显示出相当大的前景；2)在发展心理学的基础上，增加精神病理学、纵向数据分析的统计方法、神经科学、遗传学（行为遗传学、遗传流行病学和其他定量方法）、事件相关电位和脑结构和动态磁共振成像分析的先进方法的培训。拟议的研究计划将建立在研究结果的基础上，即最大消费量似乎与授予sud风险的机制更直接相关，而不是酒精依赖的精神诊断，并将使用发育和遗传信息，多方法方法来评估最大消费量表型的结构有效性；2)描述青少年与药物滥用风险相关的发展轨迹；3)描述高危青少年的神经动力学特征。培训活动将更好地为申请人进行拟议的研究做准备，该奖项将提供对这一重要表型进行系统研究的自由。这些将使申请人能够追求他的最终目标，作为一名独立的研究人员，研究与外化障碍和药物滥用相关的神经过程。此外，这项研究可能产生理论和临床有用的发现。它将扩展先前对药物滥用风险的电生理相关研究，并最终为高风险个体的干预工作带来重大希望。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The overarching goals of this proposal are twofold: 1) to develop a programmatic line of research aimed at shedding light on the development of alcohol-related problems in adolescence and into adulthood using an intermediate phenotype maximum 24-hr alcohol consumption that has shown considerable promise as an indicator of risk in preliminary studies; and 2) to augment the applicant's training in developmental psychology with additional training in psychopathology, statistical methods for longitudinal data analysis, neuroscience, genetics (behavioral genetics, genetic epidemiology, and other quantitative methods), and advanced methods of event-related potential and magnetic resonance imaging analysis of brain structure and dynamics. The proposed research plan will build on findings that maximum consumption appears to relate more directly to the mechanisms conferring risk for SUDs than a psychiatric diagnosis of alcohol dependence and will use a developmentally and genetically-informed, multimethod approach to 1) evaluate the construct validity of the maximum consumption phenotype, 2) describe developmental trajectories among adolescent youth in relation to substance abuse risk and 3) to characterize neural dynamics among high-risk adolescents. The training activities will better prepare the applicant to conduct the proposed research, and the award would provide the freedom to pursue systematic research on this important phenotype. Together these will allow the applicant to pursue his ultimate goal as an independent researcher investigating neural processes associated with externalizing disorders and substance abuse. In addition, this research is likely to yield theoretically and clinically useful findings. It will extend previous research on electrophysiological correlates of substance abuse risk and ultimately holds significant promise for intervention efforts with high-risk individuals.