National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)

The Director’s Report to the National Advisory Council on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism is now available online.

John Crabbe, Ph.D., Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Oregon Health Sciences University, Department of Behavioral Neuroscience, with colleagues in three widely separated laboratories report in this week's Science that animals with the same genes performed differently on a variety of behavioral tests depending on the animals' location. This was true although a long list of environmental influences was equalized...

Vulnerability to both alcohol and nicotine abuse may be influenced by the same genetic factor, according to a recent study supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). In the study, two genetically distinct kinds of rat – one an innately heavy-drinking strain bred to prefer alcohol (“P” rats)...

Adolescents show less activity than adults in brain regions that motivate behavior to obtain rewards, according to results from the first magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study to examine real-time adolescent response to incentives. The study also shows that adolescents and adults exhibit similar brain responses to having obtained rewards. Researchers in the Laboratory of Clinical Studies of the National Institute...

WHAT: The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health, announces that Kathleen K. Sulik, Ph.D., will deliver the 20 th Annual Mark Keller Honorary Lecture. Dr. Sulik is an internationally recognized embryologist and teratologist whose work has greatly advanced our understanding of prenatal development and alcohol-induced birth defects. WHO: Dr. Kathleen Sulik...

Follow the science to fast-track the end of AIDS When the first cases of what would become known as AIDS were reported in 1981, scientists and physicians did not know the cause and had no therapies to treat those who were infected. Times have changed and today physicians can offer their patients highly effective medicines that work as both treatment...

Read our Twitter Chat, “Alcohol & the Holidays: What You Need to Know,” transcript here: http://sfy.co/pKyy. The National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (NCADD) co-hosted the December 12 event.

Nick Jury is a Postdoctoral researcher in the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Studying in the Laboratory of Behavioral & Genomic Neuroscience, Nick is looking at the differences of alcohol abuse in males and females.

Chronic alcohol exposure leads to brain adaptations that shift behavior control away from an area of the brain involved in complex decision-making and toward a region associated with habit formation, according to a new study conducted in mice by scientists at the National Institutes of Health. The finding provides a biological mechanism that helps to explain compulsive alcohol use and...

Neuroimmune Mechanisms Contributing to Addiction Neurobiology - Brain Function and Alcohol Use Disorders September 2, 2014 8:30am - 2:30pm National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Terrace Level Conference Room 5635 Fishers Lane Bethesda, MD Registration - To register for the workshop, please send an email to changhai.cui@nih.gov with “Neuroimmune Workshop” in the subject line. Speakers and Panelists View the...

In the United States, and throughout the world, men drink more alcohol than women. But a recent analysis by scientists at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health, indicates that longstanding differences between men and women in alcohol consumption and alcohol-related harms might be narrowing in the United States. Researchers led...

With deep sadness, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) community mourns the passing of Ting-Kai Li, M.D., a renowned scientist who served as the Institute's director from 2002 to 2008. Dr. Li died on November 18, 2018, at Duke University Hospital in Durham, North Carolina. Dr. Li’s contributions to the alcohol field were monumental. He was a...

Lindsay Halladay is a neuroscientist studying in the Laboratory of Behavioral & Genomic Neuroscience at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Lindsay is trying to understand why people continue drinking alcohol despite negative outcomes from drinking alcohol.

Findings from the largest survey ever mounted on the co-occurrence of psychiatric disorders among U.S. adults afford a sharper picture than previously available of major depressive disorder* (MDD) in specific population subgroups and of MDD’s relationship to alcohol use disorders (AUDs) ** and other mental health conditions. The new analysis of data from the 2001-2002 National Epidemiologic Survey of Alcohol...

An Introduction and demonstration of the NIAAA Alcohol Treatment Navigator, presented by Dr. George F. Koob, Director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and Dr. Lori Ducharme, lead developer in the NIAAA Division of Treatment and Recovery Research. Watch video:

The Open Session of the National Advisory Council on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism will take place on February 7, 2019 from 10 AM - 3 PM. You can view the agenda for more details and tune in to the webcast if you can't make it in person.

Jenica Tapocik is a Staff Neuroscientist in the Laboratory of Clinical & Translational Studies at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse & Alcoholism. Jenica is studying addiction and is hoping to better understand how and why people become addicts. She is also studying the difference between the brains of addicted individuals and non-addicted individuals.

How much and how often people drink – not just the average amount of alcohol they consume over time – independently influence the risk of death from several causes, according to a new study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). "Taken together, our results reinforce the importance of drinking in moderation. In drinkers who are not alcohol...

A genetic variant of a receptor in the brain’s reward circuitry heightens the stimulating effects of early exposures to alcohol and increases alcohol consumption, according to a new study by researchers at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Conducted in rhesus monkeys, the study extends previous research that suggests...

Relapse to uncontrolled drinking after periods of sobriety is a defining characteristic of alcoholism and is often triggered by stress. A new study in rats reports that a specific receptor for a stress-response transmitter may play an important role in stress-induced relapse. The study, a collaboration between scientists at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of...