| Missions |
- To conduct basic and applied research on the assessment and treatment of alcohol and drug use disorders.
- To educate, teach and train health care professionals in training about applied research and science-based assessment and treatment of alcohol and drug use disorders.
- To provide state-of-the-art services to persons with alcohol and drug use disorders.
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Clinical research at the Center of Alcohol Studies focuses on basic and applied issues related to the nature of alcohol and drug use disorders and the treatment of these disorders. Research includes basic studies of diagnosis and heterogeneity of substance use disorders, controlled clinical trials, and applied, health services research studies.
Ongoing studies now include:
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| Clinical Trials |
- Treatment of Alcohol-Dependent Women
Dr. Epstein continues a program of research to test various modalities of CBT for alcohol dependent women, including a newly developed Female Specific CBT manual. Data on many aspects of female alcohol dependent samples are available, including co-morbid psychopathology, personality, family history, social support, substance use history, dyadic relationship, male partners’ drinking, and others. We are currently in the third year of a five year, NIAAA funded RCT of individual versus group female specific CBT. Mechanisms of change and cost-effectiveness are being examined. For this study we will treat a total of 200 women who have diagnoses of alcohol abuse or dependence, in a 12 session, 3 month weekly outpatient protocol, with three waves of follow up interviews.
- Couples Treatment Research Program
Dr. Epstein continues a program of research she and Dr. McCrady began in 1998. Extensive datasets are available from two prior and one current randomized clinical trial to test various modalities of CBT for women, including a newly developed Female Specific CBT manual. Data on many aspects of female alcohol dependent samples are available, including comorbid psychopathology, personality, family history, social support, substance use history, dyadic relationship, male partners’ drinking, and others.
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| Individual Differences Among Substance Abusers |
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Ongoing research in the clinical division examines reliability and utility of alcohol subtypes, vis a vis more dimensional approaches to psychopathology. Studies on Type A/B in alcohol dependent women are in progress, as are studies of Type A/B using Latent Class Analysis among a heterogeneous group of alcohol and drug users. Dr. Epstein also studies the prognostic effect of depression, anxiety, and menstrual phase on craving, drinking, and drinking outcome. In addition, studies on individual differences in trajectories of change in drinking are being done by Drs. Epstein, Hildebrandt, and Langenbucher.
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| Appearance- and Performance-Enhancing Drug Use |
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| Translational Clinical Research |
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In collaboration with Dr. Jennifer Buckman and Dr. Marsha Bates, Dr. Epstein is collecting genetic samples from alcohol dependent women to examine links with treatment response, severity of substance use history and comorbid disorders.
In collaboration with Dr. Marsha Bates, Drs. Evgeny and Bronya Vaschillo, and Dr. Paul Lehrer, Dr. Epstein is collecting psychophysiological data to link heart rate variability and treatment response in alcohol dependent women.
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| Nosology of Substance Use Disorders |
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Dr. Langenbucher’s NIDA funded research database focuses on the conceptual structure of addictive illnesses, what signs and symptoms are most denotative of addictive severity, and how diagnostic rules or algorithms should be constructed to best discriminate severe cases from mild ones, and mild cases from “normal” ones. His studies include the use of IRT-based methods, event-history analysis, receiver-operator characteristic analysis, and taxometric methods. More recently his work has expanded to include diagnostic issues in appearance- and performance-enhancing drug use.
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| Training in Clinical Research |
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