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. 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:

Nosology of Substance Use Disorders

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.

Treatment of Alcohol-Dependent Women

Dr. Epstein continues a program of research she and Dr. McCrady began in 1998. Extensive datasets are available from one 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. Currently a new R01 is pending council review, a randomized trial of individual versus group female specific CBT. Mechanisms of change and cost-effectiveness will be examined. Women’s Treatment Project Practicum

Couples Research Program

Dr. Epstein continues to collaborate with Dr. McCrady on NIAAA-funded research which focuses on women’s alcohol use and intimate relationships, versus individual therapy or other types of social support. An extensive baseline assessment of women’s drinking and drug use, psychopathology, relationship functioning, and quality and extent of the woman’s social network allows testing of patient-treatment matching hypotheses as well as providing descriptive data on intimate relationships of women with alcohol use disorders. Fellows are involved in learning to administer structured alcohol/drug assessments, structured clinical interviews, and also have been trained as project therapists. Fellows are involved in data collection, data management, and use of the data for Masters theses and doctoral dissertations.

Individual Differences Among Substance Abusers

Drs. Epstein and Hildebrandt collaborate with Dr. Don Bux on methodology to examine 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.

Appearance- and Performance-Enhancing Drug Use

Drs. Langenbucher and Hildebrandt have been for the past 5 years developing the most detailed database ever assembled on the use by elite and recreational athletes of appearance- and performance-enhancing drugs (primarily anabolic steroids and ergo/thermogenic drugs). With NIDA support they have recently begun testing an interview method – the Appearance- and Performance-Enhancing Drug Use Schedule (APEDUS) – that will be used to collect data on APED use in projected field trials.

In addition to research, the Division of Clinical Services manages its own specialty clinic within the Psychological Clinic at GSAPP – the Program for Addictions Consultation and Treatment (PACT) – and has an active NIAAA Training Grant led by Dr. Epstein that funds the clinical and research training in alcohol and drug studies of a number of advanced graduate students in both the Clinical Psychology Ph.D. and Psy.D. programs at Rutgers.