On March 25, 2015, CNN Chief Medical Correspondent and neurosurgeon Dr. Sanjay Gupta (middle) met with NIAAA Director Dr. George Koob (right) in the laboratory of Dr. Lorenzo Leggio (left). Dr. Leggio is chief of the Section on Clinical Psychoneuroendocrinology and Neuropsychopharmacology, which is run jointly by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) and the National Institute...

The Director’s Report to the National Advisory Council on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism is now available online. In addition, check out the most recent issue of the NIAAA Spectrum. The current issue includes: A feature about alcohol treatment; Recent studies about the association of improvements in health and quality of life with a reduction in drinking, a new treatment strategy...

The purpose of this workshop is to address challenges related to clinical trial designs and drug development in Alcoholic Associated Liver Disease (AALD) and Alcoholic Hepatitis (AH) including populations to study, endpoints, and diagnostic criteria. For additional details visit https://niaaa.nih.gov/alcoholic-hepatitis-workshop-fda-niaaa-aasld Link for watching the workshop remotely: https://collaboration.fda.gov/greatv/ Date: March 26-27, 2018 Location: Food and Drug Administration Great Room – White...

Summary of the 122nd Meeting September 16-17, 2009 The National Advisory Council on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) convened for its 122nd meeting at 5:30 p.m. on September 16, 2009, at the Fishers Lane Conference Center in Rockville, Maryland, in a closed session. Dr. Abraham Bautista presided over the closed review of grant applications and Merit Award nominations. Dr. Kenneth...

Please Join the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism for a Special Webcast/Teleconference Event: Introducing and Demonstrating the New NIAAA Alcohol Treatment Navigator Speakers: • Dr. George Koob, NIAAA Director • Dr. Lori Ducharme, Navigator Lead Developer Speakers will provide an overview and a walk-through of the Alcohol Treatment Navigator tool, followed by a question-and-answer period. ABOUT THE NIAAA...

Sophie Haven Post-Bacc IRTA Sophie Haven is a post-bac IRTA working in the Section on Nutritional Neurosciences at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Her role within this section consists of assisting with the Neuroimaging, Omega-3, and Reward in Adults with ADHD (NORAA) trial. This trial will be investigating the effects of Omega-3 highly unsaturated fatty acids in...

NIH-supported study finds coordinated efforts limit the impact of high-risk drinking Coordinated strategies that address alcohol availability, alcohol policy enforcement and drinking norms can help colleges and their communities protect students from the harms of high-risk drinking, according to a new study supported by the National Institutes of Health. In the Study to Prevent Alcohol Related Consequences (SPARC), researchers found...

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...

Increases were larger among females than males, providing more evidence of narrowing gender gaps in alcohol-related harms in the U.S. The rate of alcohol-related visits to U.S. emergency departments (ED) increased by nearly 50 percent between 2006 and 2014, especially among females and drinkers who are middle-aged or older, according to a new study conducted by researchers at the National...

The National Institutes of Health announced today that enrollment for the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study is now complete and, in early 2019, scientists will have access to baseline data from all ABCD Study participants. There are 11,874 youth, ages 9-10, participating in the study, including 2,100 young people who are twins or triplets. All will be followed through...

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), components of the National Institutes of Health, have collaborated with HBO to create an eye-opening documentary, ADDICTION, to air on Thursday, March 15 (9:00-10:30 p.m. ET/PT). The documentary, developed with funding support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, seeks to help Americans understand...

The medication naltrexone and up to 20 sessions of alcohol counseling by a behavioral specialist are equally effective treatments for alcohol dependence when delivered with structured medical management, according to results from "Combining Medications and Behavioral Interventions for Alcoholism" (The COMBINE Study). Results from the National Institutes of Health-supported study show that patients who received naltrexone, specialized alcohol counseling, or...

Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona, M.D., M.P.H., F.A.C.S., today called on American adults who drink alcohol to participate in free screenings to be offered April 8 at more than 5000 sites nationwide. The " Alcohol and Your Health--Where Do You Draw the Line?" screenings are offered free as part of National Alcohol Screening Day (NASD). "National Alcohol Screening Day can...

A team of NIH-supported researchers today report that alcohol increases replication of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) in human cells and, by so doing, may contribute to the rapid course of HCV infection. The researchers tested the actions of alcohol in HCV replicon--viral HCV-ribonucleic acid or HCV-RNAs that, when introduced into human liver cell lines, replicate to high levels. In...

NATIONAL ADVISORY COUNCIL ON ALCOHOL ABUSE AND ALCOHOLISM Summary of the 128th Meeting The National Advisory Council on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) convened for its 128th meeting at 3:00 p.m. on September 12, 2011, at Building 1, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, in closed session for a review of grant applications. The meeting recessed at 4:00 p.m. The...

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism has issued the “Wearable Alcohol Biosensor” Challenge in the search for a wearable or otherwise discreet device capable of measuring blood alcohol levels in real time. An improved wearable biosensor would aid researchers and clinicians by providing more accurate data on how much study participants and patients are drinking. The winning prototype...

NIAAA has issued the following RFA for the NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research Dynamic Neuroimmune Interactions in the Transition from Brain Function to Dysfunction RFA-AA-18-007, R01 https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-AA-18-007.html The goal of this NOFO is to transform our understanding of how dynamic interactions among multiple cell types involved in neuroimmune interactions (e.g., neurons, glia cells, neurovascular units, or other neuroimmune components) mediate...

A recent NIAAA study determined the expression profile of microRNAs (miRNAs) in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) of rats treated with alcohol. MicroRNAs are non-coding RNA molecules thought to play a key role in and the regulation of gene expression. The study results suggest that multiple miRNAs were aberrantly expressed in rat NAc after alcohol injection. Among them, miR-382 was down-regulated...

A new study finds that several state-level policies targeting alcohol and drug use during pregnancy lead to greater numbers of low birthweight and preterm births, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars more in public health spending each year. The study—a collaboration between the Alcohol Research Group (ARG) a program of the Public Health Institute, and Advancing New Standards in...

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) announced the 10th annual National Drug and Alcohol Facts Week® (NDAFW), will take place March 30 through April 5, 2020. NDAFW is a week of educational events that annually brings together teens and scientific experts to SHATTER THE MYTHS® about substance use and...