National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)

A new online training course will help health care professionals conduct fast, evidence-based alcohol screening and brief intervention with youth. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health, produced the course jointly with Medscape, a leading provider of online continuing medical education. “Just in time for back-to-school physicals, physicians, physician assistants, and...

The working hypothesis to explain the progression from mild (fatty liver) to more severe forms of alcoholic liver disease (e.g., fibrosis, cirrhosis, alcoholic hepatitis and hepatocellular carcinoma) has been that alcohol requires a secondary initiator or trigger for this progression, or that alcohol is secondary to some other initiating event. Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection has been a strong candidate...

In recognition of Alcohol Awareness Month, NIAAA held a Twitter chat on treatment options for alcohol problems on April 29 at 3:00 p.m. ET, (#NIAAAchat), which was co-hosted by the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (@NCADDnational).. Scientific Expert: Dan Falk, Ph.D., NIAAA Division of Treatment and Recovery Research Follow us at @NIAAAnews

Researchers at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia report in today's Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research that children between the ages of 3 and 6 years are likely to dislike the smell of beer if their parents report drinking to escape feelings of unhappiness. The findings extend earlier knowledge that young children acquire sensory learning about alcohol and suggest...

Reporting in today's Early Edition of the August Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers at the University of Texas at Austin and Stanford University describe a novel approach that may help scientists to better understand how alcohols and anesthetic drugs interact with certain brain proteins. The report also provides the strongest evidence to date that alcohols have specific...

Researchers at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development report in the current issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research (Volume 24, Number 5) results from the first study to determine whether future drinking may be predicted by response to stress during infancy. Monkeys that responded with high cortisol...

A study reported in the Journal of Family Practice (Volume 48, Number 5) shows that brief intervention can reduce alcohol consumption in problem drinkers aged 65 years and older. Project GOAL (Guiding Older Adult Lifestyles) is the first U.S. randomized controlled clinical trial to test the effectiveness of brief counseling by community-based primary care physicians in older problem drinkers. "Following...

Bethesda, Maryland. April 3, 1999 - Free, anonymous screenings for alcohol problems will be available Thursday, April 8, during the first-ever National Alcohol Screening Day (NASD), a public service event of National Alcohol Awareness Month. A national effort to increase the identification and awareness of alcohol problems, NASD is offered through a partnership of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The younger the age of drinking onset, the greater the chance that an individual at some point in life will develop a clinically defined alcohol disorder, according to a new report released today by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Young people who began drinking before age 15 were four times more likely to develop...

Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna E. Shalala announces the availability of the Ninth Special Report to the U.S. Congress on Alcohol and Health, the latest in a series of triennial reports begun in 1970. The report highlights recent research on the effects of alcohol use, abuse, and dependence on individuals and society, new knowledge about the mechanisms of...

The learning and memory disabilities associated with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) are due, in part, to hippocampal damage caused by ethanol exposure during prenatal development. However, the mechanism by which alcohol damages the developing hippocampus remains poorly understood. In the current study, researchers examined how ethanol exposure in neonatal rats – a period that is developmentally equivalent to the...

To streamline elements of its clinical trials program, the NIAAA Clinical Investigations Group (NCIG) recently turned to a technological innovation called Take Control. A sophisticated computer-based alcohol intervention, Take Control proved effective in a number of pilot tests with NCIG’s drug development trials. Take Control was co-developed by Megan Ryan, Clinical Program Director/Technology Development Coordinator for NIAAA’s Division of Medications...

Every day, millions of Americans prove that recovery from alcohol and substance use disorders is possible -- yet at the same time, millions more are struggling with the disease of addiction. These individuals are our family members, friends, and neighbors, and when they are not able to get the help they need, our communities and our country are not as...

Hospitalizations for alcohol and drug overdoses – alone or in combination – increased dramatically among 18- to 24-year-olds between 1999 and 2008, according to a study by researchers at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health. Led by Aaron M. White, Ph.D. and Ralph W. Hingson, Sc.D., of NIAAA’s division of...

Underage alcohol use is a pervasive and persistent problem in the United States and many other countries, with serious health and safety consequences, often resulting from binge drinking. Given the significant amount of alcohol advertising to which young people are exposed in virtually all types of media, scientists have sought to learn whether and how such advertising influences underage drinking...

A brain circuit that underlies feelings of stress and anxiety shows promise as a new therapeutic target for alcoholism, according to new studies by researchers at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). In preclinical and clinical studies currently reported online in Science Express, NIAAA Clinical Director Markus Heilig, M.D...

Patients with a certain gene variant drank less and experienced better overall clinical outcomes than patients without the variant while taking the medication naltrexone, according to an analysis of participants in the National Institutes of Health's 2001-2004 COMBINE (Combined Pharmacotherapies and Behavioral Interventions for Alcohol Dependence) Study. About 87 percent of patients with the variant who received naltrexone. experienced good...

A new online resource is now available to help people recognize and find high quality care for alcohol use disorder, which affects more than 15 million adults in the United States. The Alcohol Treatment Navigator, designed by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health, is a comprehensive, yet easy-to-use tool to...

Description: Why are drinking guidelines different for women than men? How do the health effects of heavy drinking differ? Where can women turn for help if they have an alcohol problem? The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) and the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (NCADD) are partnering for a Twitter Chat on women and alcohol...

“How we respond to this crisis is a test for America” A new Surgeon General’s report finds alcohol and drug misuse and severe substance use disorders, commonly called addiction, to be one of America’s most pressing public health concerns. Nearly 21 million Americans – more than the number of people who have all cancers combined – suffer from substance use...