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Suggested Citation:"Appendix I." Institute of Medicine. 1997. Dispelling the Myths About Addiction: Strategies to Increase Understanding and Strengthen Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5802.
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I Key Barriers and Critical Strategies in the Research and Public Arenas

RESEARCH ARENA

Facilitating Integration and Collaboration

Barrier: Lack of Integrative and Collaborative Research Within and Across Institutions

Strategies:

  • Develop collaborative agreements between deans, chairs, and administrators of institutions to participate in collaborative efforts and to identify individuals and areas for collaboration.

  • Develop resource- and facility-sharing plans.

  • Convene conferences, forums, and planning sessions to promote collaboration.

  • Encourage multi-site clinical and preclinical trials and utilize direct funding to increase cost-effectiveness of research, clinical trials, and training at collaborating institutions.

  • Develop mechanisms to involve industry (e.g., consortia, centers without walls, Requests for Applications [RFAs]).

  • Expand forums and develop innovative mechanisms to present and share scientific information.

  • Convene jointly sponsored workshops, seminars, symposia, and RFAs with different National Institutes of Health institutes.

  • Integrate peer-review panels.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix I." Institute of Medicine. 1997. Dispelling the Myths About Addiction: Strategies to Increase Understanding and Strengthen Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5802.
×
  • Create "new" interdisciplinary centers of excellence.

  • Create new funding mechanism for interdisciplinary research for young and senior investigators.

  • Examine and possibly revise federal rules for research protocols (e.g., confidentiality).

  • Educate Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) about the risks, benefits, and needs of addiction research.

  • Encourage researchers to publish in clinical journals and other publications.

Increasing Skilled Human Resources and Improving Quality

Barrier: Lack of Educational Curricula

Strategies:

  • Introduce addiction research at an early stage of education.

  • Improve educational curricula in addiction research at all levels, especially among health professionals.

  • Provide a progression of educational training opportunities and permit ready access to the study of addiction research issues.

Barrier: Lack of Certification Opportunities

Strategies:

  • Clarify definition and requirements for expertise in addiction as it relates to specific specialties.

  • Intensify training requirements and ensure that addiction is part of the educational credentialing process for all health care providers.

  • Enhance educational curricula to convey understanding of concepts related to genetic, biological, and behavioral aspects of addiction.

Barrier: Inadequate Mentoring

Strategies:

  • Enhance effectiveness of existing programs (e.g., K05, K07).

  • Develop shorter grant review cycles.

  • Ensure mentoring through innovative mechanisms (e.g., satellite programs or a network of mentors for co-mentoring).

  • Implement a systematic assessment of the effects of mentoring experiences.

  • Provide support for short-term internships in clinical settings.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix I." Institute of Medicine. 1997. Dispelling the Myths About Addiction: Strategies to Increase Understanding and Strengthen Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5802.
×

 

  • Develop joint programs with industry, foundations, universities, and government.

Funding Stability and Adequacy

Barrier: Low Levels and Instability of Funding

Strategies:

  • Establish stable funding trajectory for research and training grants.

  • Incrementally increase percentage of extramural research funding assigned to training support at National Institute on Drug Abuse and National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

  • Develop joint programs with other agencies and institutions (e.g., industry, private foundations, academia) to support research training and ease the difficult transition periods for career development of researchers (utilize memorandum of understanding).

  • Develop mechanisms to provide bridging support for promising young investigators (particularly at difficult transition periods).

Barrier: Attracting New Investigators

Strategies:

  • Develop more effective targeting of specific awards.

  • Encourage wider use of B/START (Behavioral Science Track Award for Rapid Transition) mechanism.

  • Provide set-aside funds for summer internships.

  • Provide travel money for conferences.

Barrier: Special Problems for M.D./Ph.D.s

Strategies:

  • Provide a new fellowship that combines research and training.

  • Provide mechanisms for longer training intervals.

  • Develop a debt forgiveness program.

  • Provide support for staggered or short-term clinical internships.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix I." Institute of Medicine. 1997. Dispelling the Myths About Addiction: Strategies to Increase Understanding and Strengthen Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5802.
×

PUBLIC ARENA

Education and Training

Barrier: Lack of Education

Strategies:

  • Launch a campaign to educate the public and others in the medical and scientific communities about the commonalities among addictive drugs.

  • Emphasize the importance of addiction research and its accomplishments.

  • Stress the complex nature of addiction—that it is a chronic, relapsing disease involving fundamental changes in brain circuitry.

  • Encourage school- and community-based programs to address issues of addiction at age-appropriate levels.

  • Promote the education of science writers through press conferences and public symposia.

  • Encourage private and public funding of efforts to develop educational programs for schools, adult education programs, educational computer programs, or other media communications.

  • Encourage the development of educational materials for undergraduate-level courses.

  • Educate the public and professionals about myths versus scientific clinical facts regarding addiction.

Tackling Stigma and Building Advocacy

Barrier: Lack of Advocacy

Strategies:

  • Build advocacy groups from families of nicotine, alcohol, and illegal drug users.

  • Emphasize what works and why and link research and treatment to other areas.

  • Involve private foundations, industry, universities, and other organizations as well as M.D./Ph.D. scientist leaders to translate research findings and new clinical developments into lay terms.

  • Increase communications with media to report timely, accurate, and reliable information about research findings.

  • Disseminate scientific information to the public.

  • Forge an alliance between local citizens' groups and scientists to conduct symposia.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix I." Institute of Medicine. 1997. Dispelling the Myths About Addiction: Strategies to Increase Understanding and Strengthen Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5802.
×
  • Organize grassroots organizations into a national network of advocates

  • Aggressively seek increased support for research.

  • Increase the visibility of addiction research within existing organizations that advocate on behalf of addiction treatment and services.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix I." Institute of Medicine. 1997. Dispelling the Myths About Addiction: Strategies to Increase Understanding and Strengthen Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5802.
×

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix I." Institute of Medicine. 1997. Dispelling the Myths About Addiction: Strategies to Increase Understanding and Strengthen Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5802.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix I." Institute of Medicine. 1997. Dispelling the Myths About Addiction: Strategies to Increase Understanding and Strengthen Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5802.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix I." Institute of Medicine. 1997. Dispelling the Myths About Addiction: Strategies to Increase Understanding and Strengthen Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5802.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix I." Institute of Medicine. 1997. Dispelling the Myths About Addiction: Strategies to Increase Understanding and Strengthen Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5802.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix I." Institute of Medicine. 1997. Dispelling the Myths About Addiction: Strategies to Increase Understanding and Strengthen Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5802.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix I." Institute of Medicine. 1997. Dispelling the Myths About Addiction: Strategies to Increase Understanding and Strengthen Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5802.
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Every year about half a million men, women, and children in the United States die from the effects of using nicotine, alcohol, and illegal drugs: one of every four American deaths. Yet research to solve this terrible problem is often perceived as less important than other types of biomedical investigation.

Focusing on four major classes of drugs with the greatest social and economic impact—nicotine, alcohol, opioids, and stimulants—Dispelling the Myths About Addiction examines what is known about addiction and what is needed to develop a talented cadre of investigators and to educate the public about addiction research. The committee explores these areas:

  • Economic costs of addiction.
  • What has been learned about addiction from research into basic neurobiology and the brain, psychosocial and behavioral factors, and epidemiology.
  • Education and training of researchers and the research infrastructure.
  • Public perceptions and their impact on public policy in this field.

This volume outlines the challenges and opportunities in addiction research today and makes recommendations to educators, treatment professionals, public and private institutions, and others for how to build support for addiction research and treatment.

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