Mentoring in Addiction Treatment Research

描述（由申请人提供）：我是一名精神病学家，担任马萨诸塞州总医院（MGH）成瘾医学中心（CAM）主任和哈佛医学院（HMS）精神病学副教授。自1999年以来，我一直在进行NIDA赞助的面向患者的成瘾研究（POAR）。从2001年到2006年，我获得了NIDA K23奖，使我获得了公共卫生硕士学位，并在尼古丁依赖治疗方面进行了指导临床研究。2005年，我被任命为MGH CAM的负责人，开始建立一个蓬勃发展的临床研究项目，并花费大量时间指导初级研究人员。我的研究主要集中在发现新的药物和行为治疗尼古丁依赖那些有或没有重大精神疾病。我目前担任两个NIDA R01和一个NIDA R21拨款的首席研究员（PI），并担任NIDA U01治疗尼古丁成瘾药物合作发现（CDDG-ND）的共同PI和项目PI。我已经建立了一个由15名初级研究人员组成的小组，在我资助的研究背景下合作，将神经科学的最新进展转化为成瘾的研究和治疗。我在一个丰富的临床研究环境中工作。我没有得到任何机构对指导的支持，为了从2011年开始承担重要的临床责任，我将需要减少我的指导工作。K24奖将保护原本用于临床责任的时间，让我继续为POAR的初级研究人员提供密集的持续指导，并花更多的精力吸引优秀的初级研究人员到POAR，同时投入45%的精力进行独立的、同行评审的POAR，以发现尼古丁依赖的新治疗方法。我的长期职业目标是：1)通过开发和测试新的药理学和行为干预措施，并开发算法来改善成年人尼古丁依赖的结果，以提高戒烟率，减少个人复发；2)提高我们对如何有效治疗伴有精神疾病的吸烟者尼古丁依赖的知识基础；3)开发治疗尼古丁依赖的基本机制，使其对其他成瘾疾病有效；4)通过提供指导研究机会，促进临床成瘾研究的早期职业研究者的发展。该奖项授予期间的具体目标是：1)发展神经影像学和遗传学临床研究应用方面的专业知识，以加强正在进行和未来的研究，开发和测试预防吸烟复发的新疗法，并建立一个知识库，指导以患者为中心的尼古丁依赖治疗。2)保护对初级调查员进行实质性指导的时间。3)继续并扩大参与POAR。为了实现这些目标，我将投入20%的精力用于新培训，30%的精力用于初级调查员的实质性指导，45%的精力用于资助POAR。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): I am a psychiatrist serving as director of the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Center for Addiction Medicine (CAM) and Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School (HMS). I have conducted NIDA sponsored patient oriented addiction research (POAR) since 1999. From 2001-2006, I was supported by a NIDA K23 award that enabled me to earn a masters degree in public health and to conduct mentored clinical research in nicotine dependence treatment. In 2005, I was asked to direct the MGH CAM and began to build a thriving clinical research program and to spend significant time mentoring junior investigators. My research has focused on discovery of novel pharmacologic and behavioral treatments for nicotine dependence in those with and without major psychiatric illnesses. I currently serve as principal investigator (PI) for two NIDA R01 and one NIDA R21 grant awards and am Co-PI and Project PI for the NIDA U01 Cooperative Drug Discovery for the Treatment of Nicotine Addiction (CDDG-ND). I have established a group of fifteen junior investigators working collaboratively in the context of my funded research to translate recent advances in neuroscience to the study and treatment of addictions. I work in a rich environment for clinical research. I receive no institutional support for mentoring and will be required curtail my mentoring effort in order to assume significant clinical responsibilities beginning in 2011. The K24 award will protect time that would otherwise be diverted to clinical responsibilities to allow me to continue to provide intensive ongoing mentorship to junior investigators in POAR and to spend more effort attracting excellent junior researchers to POAR, while devoting 45% effort to conducting independent, peer-reviewed POAR to discover novel treatments for nicotine dependence. My long term career objectives are: 1) To improve outcomes for adults with nicotine dependence by developing and testing novel pharmacologic and behavioral interventions and developing algorithms to tailor these interventions to increase cessation rates and reduce relapse in individuals; 2) To improve our knowledge base of how to effectively treat nicotine dependence in smokers with co-morbid mental illness; 3) To develop therapies for nicotine dependence that act upon basic mechanisms such that they are effective for other addictive disorders; and 4) To contribute to the development of early career investigators in clinical addiction research by providing mentored research opportunities. The specific aims to be accomplished during the period of the award are to 1) Develop specific expertise in clinical research applications of neuroimaging and genetics in order to enhance ongoing and future research in development and testing of novel treatments for prevention of relapse to smoking and development of a knowledge base to guide patient-centered nicotine dependence treatment. 2) Protect time for substantive mentoring of junior investigators. 3) Continue and extend involvement in POAR. To accomplish these goals, I will devote 20% effort to new training, 30% effort to substantive mentoring of junior investigators, and 45% effort to funded POAR. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Each year over 430,000 people in the US die from smoking-related illness; the annual global mortality toll is over 5 million, and 500 million existing cigarette smokers will die of causes that could be prevented by treatment of their addiction to tobacco-delivered nicotine. This K24 award will support mentoring and training of talented clinical scientists to discover novel treatments for smoking cessation and prevention of relapse to smoking that would not otherwise be supported.