Yale Bulletin and Calendar

September 22, 2000Volume 29, Number 3



Dr. David Kessler, dean of the School of Medicine, chats with Alan Leshner, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Leshner was the featured speaker at a Sept. 18 conference inaugurating two NIDA-supported research centers at Yale.



NIDA leader unveils 'toolbox' for fighting drug addiction

Noting that information on drug addiction has grown dramatically in recent years, Alan Leshner, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), unveiled a "toolbox" of treatment approaches during a talk at Yale Sept. 18.

"One of NIDA's mandates is to disseminate state-of-the-art research information about drug addiction and its treatment," Leshner said. "This new toolbox provides treatment professionals with a wealth of materials on new and effective approaches to help patients with drug-related problems."

The bright gray "NIDA Clinical Toolbox: Science-Based Materials for Drug Abuse Counselors" will be sent to 12,000 drug treatment programs around the country. It is similar to a magazine file box and will hold all of the current NIDA drug treatment publications along with material that will result from future NIDA-sponsored research.

Leshner, speaking during a symposium in Harkness Auditorium, said the latest research shows drug addiction has three components ­ physiological, experiential and environmental. Yale substance abuse researchers, he said, are looking at all of these elements.

"Yale University has played a critical, essential role in all of these domains," he said.

Titled "Innovations in Drug Abuse Treatment From Research to Practice," the gathering marked the inauguration of two new NIDA-supported clinical research centers at Yale: the Transdisciplinary Tobacco Use Research Center and the Clinical Trials Network: New England Node. The two centers will help rapid translation of findings from basic science and clinical research into clinical practice in community prevention and treatment programs.

Leshner said that although there are 72 known risk factors for drug addiction, all of the research indicates that there two reasons why people abuse drugs ­ they are "novelty" or sensation seekers looking to "feel good," or they are self-medicating in order to "feel better" or "normal."

"They want to modify their mood, their perception and their emotional state," he said. "They like what [drugs] do to their brains."

Leshner said it is clear that the reason why so many drug abusers relapse after treatment is because the drugs -- and by this he said he meant alcohol, heroin and cocaine -- literally change the brain. "Addiction is fundamentally a brain disease, but it's not just a brain disease," he said.

Medical School Dean Dr. David Kessler said NIDA's long-term support of drug abuse research at Yale has been critical in the advances made by researchers here into the prevention, physiology and behavioral template of drug abuse.

"Nothing we do at Yale could be done without the type of national leadership that has focused on these questions," Kessler said. "Yale can do the science, but the leadership of Alan Leshner has brought 80% of all research support from NIDA."

-- By Jacqueline Weaver


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