National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)

The 11th joint meeting of the the National Advisory Council on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Cancer Advisory Board, and the National Advisory Council on Drug Abuse (CRAN) will take place on Wednesday May 10, 2023 from 10:00 AM - 3:30 PM EST. The full agenda is available and the event will take place via videocast.

Title : Advancing mHealth Interventions for Understanding and Preventing Alcohol-Related Domestic Violence Contact: Robert Freeman, Ph.D., Division of Epidemiology and Prevention Research Purpose In light of the documented increases in both alcohol misuse (among some individuals) and domestic violence (DV) as a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic and array of mandated restrictions enacted to mitigate COVID spread, the purpose...

Dr. Kenneth Kendler is a world-renowned expert on the genetics of psychiatric and substance abuse disorders. Fueled by a lifelong interest in how the human mind works, Dr. Kendler pursues research on how genes and the environment contribute to the development of alcohol use disorders, as well as other psychiatric problems. His research has transformed how we understand the relationships...

Mark Egli, Ph.D. Purpose The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) seeks to continue the Integrative Neuroscience Initiative on Alcoholism (INIA), a translational, multidisciplinary, collaborative research effort studying brain mechanisms of excessive alcohol drinking associated with alcohol use disorder (AUD) and the relationship between excessive drinking, stress, and anxiety. The primary goal of INIA is to identify brain...

The 2020 ICCFASD Annual Public Meeting will be held on March 9, 2020 at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 6700B Rockledge Drive, First Floor Conference Center, Bethesda, Maryland 20817. On-site guest parking will be available. If you can’t come to the meeting in-person, the meeting will be available live and archived at NIH VideoCasting The Interagency Coordinating...

Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is as effective as established behavioral treatments for some people with alcohol use disorder (AUD), according to an extensive review of NIAAA-supported research and other studies. As reported March 11 in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Review, researchers used a meta-analysis to show that AA and other 12-step facilitation interventions are effective in helping individuals with AUD...

Interventions to reduce anxiety and depression may help prevent relapse in individuals with chronic pain who are recovering from alcohol use disorder (AUD). This conclusion comes from a recent study in which investigators reanalyzed data collected from people with chronic pain who participated in one of two major clinical trials on alcohol treatment, one in the United States and one...

The NIAAA announces the release of genetic data collected from individuals who participated in NIAAA’s National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions-III (NESARC-III), the largest study ever conducted on alcohol use and alcohol use disorder (AUD), and its co-occurrence with drug use, substance use disorders (SUD), and related psychiatric conditions. The NESARC-III is a large nationally representative epidemiologic survey...

September 8, 2022 Meeting of the National Advisory Council on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. 6700 B - ABC ROCKLEDGE DRIVE, BETHESDA MD*, NIH Videocast - visit https://videocast.nih.gov/watch=45783 For additional information, see the full meeting agenda. *The meeting will be open to the public, with attendance limited to space available. Individuals who plan to attend in person should notify Dr. Bautista...

Most people with AUD can and do recover, and their individual paths to recovery vary widely. By highlighting the likelihood of recovery, you may encourage more patients with AUD to accept treatment or to reduce their drinking with or without treatment.

November is Native American Heritage Month. In a recent guest blog for the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities’ NIMHD Insights, George F. Koob, Ph.D., Director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), discussed NIAAA-supported research demonstrating the importance of community-based interventions in preventing underage drinking among American Indian and Alaska Native youth. Supporting research...

A new study provides evidence that endocannabinoids, natural compounds that are chemically similar to the active ingredient in marijuana, play a role in the development of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD). Researchers led by Balapal S. Basavarajappa (aka: Basavaraj S. Balapal), Ph.D., of the Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research and New York State Psychiatric Institute, investigated the effect of...

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...

CollegeAIM is a convenient, research-based tool for comparing college alcohol interventions CollegeAIM, a new resource to help college officials address harmful and underage student drinking, is now available. The CollegeAIM (Alcohol Intervention Matrix) guide and website was developed by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, part of the National Institutes of Health. The centerpiece of CollegeAIM is a...

Takeaways You can maximize patient choice and outcomes by offering a full menu of evidence-based treatment options. Approaches for treating alcohol use disorder (AUD) include behavioral health treatments, FDA-approved AUD medications, and mutual support groups, or a combination of any of these. Behavioral health treatments for AUD can bring lasting positive change. Steer patients in need of referral for behavioral...

NIAAA shares the sad news that Sally M. Anderson, Ph.D., passed away on September 14, 2023. For more than two decades, Dr. Anderson was integral to the leadership of the Interagency Coordinating Committee on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (ICCFASD). NIAAA Director Dr. George F. Koob said, “Sally made major and seminal contributions to our efforts in FASD. Our thoughts go...

According to the results of a National Institutes of Health (NIH) study, reported in the December issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry (Volume 61), Mexican Americans and non-Hispanic Whites born in the United States have a higher risk for developing psychiatric disorders than their foreign-born counterparts who have immigrated to the United States. The psychiatric disorders included alcohol and...

Surveys show 9.5 percent of Americans use marijuana; 30 percent of users meet criteria for a disorder The percentage of Americans who reported using marijuana in the past year more than doubled between 2001-2002 and 2012-2013, and the increase in marijuana use disorder during that time was nearly as large. Past year marijuana use rose from 4.1 percent to 9.5...

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) notes with sadness the passing of Robert E. Taylor, M.D., Ph.D. Dr. Taylor had a distinguished career as the Dean of the College of Medicine, Chair of the Department of Pharmacology, and Director of the NIAAA-funded Collaborative Alcohol Research Center at Howard University. Dr. Taylor also served as a member of...