Substance Abuse Treatment Development and Clinical Research Mentoring

 描述（由申请人提供）：在以患者为导向的研究中，这个K24中期职业研究者奖的总体目标是让Frances Levin博士继续扩大她的临床研究和指导的项目线。两个主要目标驱动研究者的工作：1）开发药物治疗，考虑物质滥用者的异质性和2）提供指导，以初级临床研究者。尽管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。药物滥用往往伴随着额外的精神科合并症，但基于药物的治疗有限。此外，尽管大麻使用障碍的发病率很高，但对大麻使用障碍的药物疗法进行评价的研究极少。此次竞争性更新和之前K24资助成就的主要活动包括为可卡因和大麻依赖者开发新型联合药物治疗策略，测试新的创新行为干预措施与可卡因和其他成瘾性疾病的药物疗法相结合，并确保有希望的人类实验室研究结果在门诊治疗环境中得到有效测试。在K24竞争性续约期间，Levin博士将担任U 54（转换的P50）、多中心U1（转换的R 01）和R 01的主要研究者，以及针对医生培训的T32的主要研究者。此外，她将担任其他几个RO 1/R21的共同研究者或共同研究者，与初级和中级职业同事一起扩展她的兴趣领域。她将担任几个指导K奖的导师。该应用程序的职业发展计划将扩大莱文博士的知识到基于技术的治疗，神经成像技术和压力诱导的范例领域，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学员：（1）博士前学员（医科学生）;（2）博士后学员（精神科住院医生和研究员）;（3）初级教员。一个总体的职业目标是指导临床研究者，并通过与其他研究者的相互合作来推进药物滥用领域的知识，通常是与莱文博士指导过或目前正在指导的个人。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，以及通过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.