What can you tell us about this grant?

Tobacco smoking, alcohol consumption, and over-consumption of rich and highly palatable “comfort” foods, are the top three causes of preventable death and disease in the U.S. today. The compulsive engagement in these addictions despite serious health, social and legal consequences is a common feature. Yale already has a collaborative, interdisciplinary program on stress and addiction, and this program served as the scientific cornerstone for this grant proposal. This grant will be used to study the neural, behavioral and social processes by which stress decreases self-control and facilitates engaging in maladaptive behaviors such as excessive use of tobacco, alcohol, or rich and high fat foods.

How does stress affect addiction?

There is mounting evidence that stress increases maladaptive behaviors. For example, you may be stressed at night, and before you know it your hand is in the freezer and the ice cream comes out. We want to know what it is about stress that promotes compulsions and enables bad choices and poor decision-making, i.e., what processes make losing control more likely and the best strategies to alter those processes and give better control in challenging situations.

How does self-control enter into the equation?

Emerging data show that a loss of self-control is critical in addictive behaviors. There is also evidence that stress leads to lapses in self-control. Although research on the links between stress and addiction, stress and psychiatric disorders, and stress and chronic diseases exists, systematic research on the interactions between stress, self-control and addiction have been rare. Through an interdisciplinary, collaborative team approach that includes the multiple brain, body, behavioral and social systems, we believe we will be able to understand these linkages and ultimately decrease the deleterious and chronic health consequences of addictive behaviors.

As an example, Amy Arnsten and Daeyeol Lee will conduct basic research on the neurochemical pathways in the brain’s prefrontal cortex that become compromised during uncontrollable stress, thereby affecting our ability to make good choices and decisions. Roy Baumeister at Florida State University, who has been studying self-control for years, is going to teach self-control exercises to college students as a way of buffering them in stress situations. The idea is that if you develop good self-control habits, you will automatically have better self-control in those moments when you need it. These are just two examples of the kind of research that will be conducted within the consortium.

What made Yale competitive for this grant?

Yale has a history of putting together large scientific research programs and centers, and many of the lead investigators are senior scientists who are involved in these research initiatives. Another unique aspect is that there are leading scientists who are studying the neuroscience of stress, self-control or addictive behaviors using different approaches and within different disciplines. They have existing collaborations and their research programs already use interdisciplinary approaches in their studies.

Therefore, in building this new endeavor, we were able to rely on many established collaborations, while also involving scientists who had not previously worked together and who bring new approaches and perspectives to the team. A key aspect of having these established research programs is the training opportunities that this grant will make available to junior scientists. Training the next group of interdisciplinary scientists is a major focus of NIH’s Roadmap Initiative.

What exactly is stress? Is all stress bad?

Stress is the process by which an individual responds to events that are challenging, threatening or overwhelming. Initially, there is a response to the event, followed by adaptation. With increasing stress, the response may be expressed across the physical, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral or action domains. Humans are wired to survive and adapt to challenges and our stress responses are critical to adaptation. For example, low levels of stress are known to promote learning and in that sense it can be considered “good” stress, as it is through challenges that we learn, creating new brain cells and ultimately strengthening our ability to survive in challenging environments.

What is not good is when situations feel out of control, and our actions and behaviors don’t alter the situation significantly. Events can also become chronic or occur repeatedly. These situations can make us act in ways that provide immediate relief, but do not serve our long-term interests or survival needs. Many of the behavioral responses to stress develop in childhood. Therefore, it is important also to look at how these responses develop in childhood, to identify people who may have more difficulty than others in coping with uncontrollable and chronic stress.

What is important in a person’s childhood in terms of response to stress?

We want to look carefully at how the person was treated as a child. There is increasing evidence that early life stress may affect our adaptive ability to manage stress in adulthood. This may also sensitize an individual to the reinforcing effects of alcohol, tobacco, or rich and highly palatable foods. We also have to consider chronic stress caused by poverty and family conflict situations. Isolation and loneliness are other significant stressors. For example, studies show that isolation and loneliness are associated with poor outcomes in smoking, depression, alcoholism and cardiovascular disease.

What is the aim of the consortium?

The key goals are to understand the mechanisms promoting compulsive behaviors and develop new prevention and treatment strategies. By understanding the specific ways that stress decreases self-control, we will develop interventions that reduce the risk of self control failures, which lead to maladaptive behaviors to manage stress. Such interventions may include pharmacological or behavioral techniques to improve self-control and enhance good decision making or even social interventions that promote low stress lifestyles and enhance selection of healthy behaviors.

What disciplines are involved in the research?

There are 20 disciplines that span five schools — medicine, arts and sciences, management, nursing and public health. These disciplines include neuroscience, biochemistry, molecular biology, psychology, genetics, radiology and neuroimaging, pharmacology, social psychology, neuroeconomics, epidemiology and public health, statistics, endocrinology and cardiovascular medicine. We will be looking at everything from the cellular and molecular mechanisms of stress and maladaptive behaviors to behavioral and social interventions.


Why are failure rates high in these addictions?

There are many reasons. One is craving and compulsion. We don’t have medications and interventions that directly target compulsions that drive addictive behaviors. Stress contributes to high rates of failure and relapse. Folks who are most likely to fail are those who have had high levels of stress and also those in whom the addictive behaviors are most entrenched and severe.

What specifically will the researchers will be looking at?

The individual research projects will address some of the critical questions on stress and self-control processes affecting addictive behaviors. For example, how are the reward pathways altered by stress and by excessive consumption of alcohol, tobacco, or rich and highly palatable foods? How is communication altered on a cellular level in the frontal cortex during high levels of stress? How does development of stress and reward related brain regions differ in adolescents who have had high maltreatment compared to those with low maltreatment experiences? How do self-control exercises help the frontal cortex function better? What pharmacological agents would be useful in improving our ability to respond to stress and challenges and improve self-control? Using population based approaches, which types of stressors make us most susceptible to losing self-control and participating in unhealthy addictive behaviors?

There is also a genetics and neuroendocrine core in which all of the individuals participating in the studies will be genotyped, and neurochemicals involved in stress and adaptation will be assessed. We know that gene/environment interactions are critical in the vulnerability to nicotine dependence, alcoholism and obesity. We want to identify who is more vulnerable to stress and to stress related self-control failures.

What are the plans to share the consortium’s findings?

Another aspect of the consortium is community collaboration. There will be a website to inform the public about the research findings, and interactive resources that permit individuals to look at their own patterns of smoking, drinking and eating behaviors. There also will be regular research seminars, an annual conference and a research education component that will allow junior investigators trained in one discipline to work in the laboratory of a scientist from another discipline.

More information on the consortium can be found at http://med.yale.edu/stress.

— By Jacqueline Weaver

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

Grant to fund study of stress & self-control

Award-winning researcher named new engineering dean

Zipcar service offers environmentally friendly travel option

Community invited to meet World Fellows at open house, series

FRESHMAN ADDRESSES

• President Richard C. Levin: The Questions That Matter
  
  
• Dean Peter Salovey: The Pursuit of Happiness
  
  

Britton reappointed to second term as Berkeley Divinity School dean

Development Office announces new associate vice presidents

ENDOWED PROFESSORSHIPS

• Dr. Richard Belitsky is the Harold W. Jockers Associate Professor
  
  
• James Duncan is named the Ebenezer K. Hunt Professor
  
  
• Dr. Erol Fikrig appointed the Waldemar Von Zedtwitz Professor
  
  
• Dr. Sally Shaywitz is designated the Audrey Ratner Professor
  
  

‘Art for Yale’ celebrates ‘outpouring of gifts’ to gallery

Team seeking key to unlock link between stress and addictive behavior

School of Public Health creates new deanship in academic affairs

F&ES student working to insure survival of the snow leopard

Yale Rep opens its new season with Shakespeare classic

New York Times columnist to offer ‘Mobile Gadget Show-and-Tell’

New works by painter and printmaker Nathan Margalit . . .

While You Were Away ...

Biomass energy is the topic of talk by award-winning engineer

In Memoriam: Biochemists Joseph Fruton and Sofia Simmonds

Campus Notes

---

Bulletin Home|Visiting on Campus|Calendar of Events|In the News

Bulletin Board|Classified Ads|Search Archives|Deadlines

Bulletin Staff|Public Affairs|News Releases| E-Mail Us|Yale Home

---