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December 13, 2002|Volume 31, Number 14|Five-Week Issue



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New center will investigate
cocaine use among women

Researchers in the Department of Psychiatry and who are affiliated with Women's Health Research at Yale will examine sex-specific factors in the association between stress and cocaine addiction with help from a new five-year, $5.8 million grant.

The grant is funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institutes of Health's Office of Research on Women's Health. It will help establish a specialized center of research (SCOR) to study how women differ from men in response to stress and cocaine addiction.

Rajita Sinha, associate professor of psychiatry and director of addiction services at the Connecticut Mental Health Center, is the principal investigator and director of the SCOR. The center's co-directors are Carolyn Mazure, professor of psychiatry and director of Women's Health Research at Yale, and Dr. Bruce Rounsaville, professor of psychiatry.

Cocaine addiction is a chronic relapsing disorder with devastating psychosocial, health and societal consequences. Although women are more likely to abuse nicotine and prescribed medications, a growing number of the illicit drug-using population -- an estimated 4.7 million -- are women, and an ever-growing subgroup of those abusing drugs like cocaine are women. Such data underscore the need for studying sex-specific factors in cocaine dependence.

Substantial clinical data also exist to show a strong correlation between stress and drug abuse. Recent evidence suggests a role of stress in cocaine reinforcement, cocaine craving and in relapse. Stress has also been identified as one of the key factors in increasing the vulnerability to develop cocaine dependence in women.

Women report stress and negative mood as playing a pivotal role in the continued drug use and relapse cycle. While there have been attempts to understand the mechanisms underlying the association between stress and cocaine addiction, systematic research on sex-specific factors that contribute to this association has been rare.

Using interdisciplinary approaches, the SCOR investigators will examine the effects of early life stress, sex hormones and stress hormones on cocaine reinforcement and the risk of developing cocaine dependence, as well as the contribution of sex-based factors in the association between stress and cocaine relapse. A better understanding of these sex-specific mechanisms is expected to contribute to the development of new treatments and prevention strategies.

Other key investigators associated with the SCOR at Yale include Jane Taylor, associate professor of psychiatry; Marina Picciotto, associate professor of psychiatry, pharmacology and neurobiology; and Dr. Thomas Kosten, professor of psychiatry. Investigators interested in participating in the SCOR may send e-mail to rajita.sinha@yale.edu for more information.


T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S

Susan Hockfield named as Provost

Four Yale College seniors have received prestigious awards for study in Britain

Three scientists named to Sterling chairs

Levin cited for work building town-gown ties

New center will investigate cocaine use among women

Neurobiologists win prestigious Gerard Prize

Online journal brings globalization issues to a broad audience

Belated news: Ecologist Gene Likens wins national honor

Yale-developed technology predicts patients' response to drugs

Group addressing gender-related issues in academia

Renovation of Yale Art Gallery building to begin this summer

'One Day at a Time' series to explore impact of civil rights struggle . . .

O'Neill sisters earn automatic qualification for NCAA track competition

Talk and tour to highlight event honoring birth of Ben Franklin

Yale Books in Brief


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