Substance Abuse Intervention Outcome Research Training

SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The aim of our multidisciplinary program is to train postdoctoral biomedical, behavioral, health care and other public health scientists to conduct innovative and rigorous addiction treatment research. An overarching goal is to enhance the scientific reasoning skills needed to advance treatment options for people who struggle to reduce their substance use. From our perspective, such research will benefit from interventions guided by sophisticated and fully developed theory using a multidisciplinary framework that includes the biological, psychological, social, cultural, and policy context in which interventions occur. Distinctive features of our training program are that it is interdisciplinary; that it embraces no single ideology or theory concerning the nature of dysfunctions related to drug use; that it provides training in early intervention and treatment along a continuum; and that it provides trainees with highly individualized opportunities to develop competitive grant applications and by doing so, contribute to the knowledge base of substance-related dysfunction and treatment. The training experience is structured to provide individualized research experience and training, complemented by a core academic curriculum to which 20% of fellows' training time is allocated. Four distinct areas are covered in the curriculum: (1) statistics/research methodology; (2) grantsmanship; (3) ethical issues in research; and (4) a two-year series of formal courses covering the etiology and treatment of substance use from varying disciplinary perspectives. We also subscribe to a research apprenticeship model under the guidance of the research mentor. Each fellow's individual research training experience emerges from an individualized development plan developed by the fellow, agreed to by their mentor(s), and reviewed and approved by the Training Committee. The program has a primary emphasis on training in innovative treatment development and clinical trials research with a secondary emphasis on the translation of clinical research into services research. Our research in behavioral economics, neuroscience, and pharmacotherapy expands our focus of translational research from basic to clinical. An additional area of prominence in our training program is tobacco regulatory science. The typical training program duration is two years, but we offer a third year when needed. The program accepts on average two new fellows per academic year.