NIDA-Sponsored Sessions Explore Latest in Addiction Treatment

In light of the overwhelming attendance at sessions on substance abuse at last year's annual meeting, the scientific program for this year's meeting will offer attendees a wide array of sessions on substance abuse and addiction.

Last year the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) sponsored a program track incorporating more than 40 sessions of varying types—many of which enjoyed standing-room-only crowds. This year, the list of sessions directly sponsored by NIDA is a bit narrower, but no less significant.

“Because we were not sponsoring a formal track this year, what we tried to do was sponsor sessions that would provide perspective on where the field is in terms of the hard science,” explained NIDA Director Nora Volkow, M.D.

NIDA is sponsoring four sessions (three symposia and one issue workshop) and a New Research Young Investigator Poster Session in Atlanta this year, Volkow told Psychiatric News. Two of the sessions, she said, are“ very clinical,” while the other two are geared toward preclinical research.

The two clinically oriented sessions focus on two challenges faced frequently in addiction and substance abuse practices today. The first focuses on the treatment of marijuana addiction in those with mental illness, and the second examines what Volkow termed “the current epidemic of addiction to opiate analgesics.”

“Psychiatrists are really starting to see these patients,” Volkow continued, “so [the annual meeting sessions are] an important opportunity to make clinicians aware of what they need to know in order to treat these individuals.”

The issue workshop “Cannabis Dependence Treatment: Where We Are, Where We Are Going” will explore evolving treatment options for those addicted to marijuana. The workshop will be held from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 24, in Room B315 in the Georgia World Congress Center.

“Most of the research in marijuana treatment has been targeted toward behavioral interventions,” Volkow noted. “However, NIDA is pursuing an initiative to develop medications that could be used to help individuals who are addicted to marijuana.”

Recent research has significantly advanced the field's understanding of cannabinoids, Volkow added, “from the basic physiologic perspective, including the role that they play in regulating human physiology and, ultimately, human behavior.”

The symposium “Increases in Opioid Analgesic Abuse; Concerns and Strategies” will focus on the delicate balance required between adequate and appropriate pain control and abuse and addiction to prescription pain medications. It will be held from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesday, May 24, in the Cottonwood Room in the North Tower of the Omni Hotel.

Treating patients with opiate addiction, Volkow said, is a particularly difficult clinical challenge, “because many [of these patients] do suffer from pain. So they need the opiate for pain control, but they are also addicted. We need to alert clinicians as to what they need to know to properly identify when these problems are occurring and what is known in terms of treatment and prognosis for these patients.”

The two symposia focusing on basic, preclinical research are “New Scientific Advances in the Neurobiology of Behavior,” to be held Wednesday, May 25, in Room B402 in the Georgia World Congress Center, and“ Neurobiology of Compulsive Reward-Seeking,” to be held Thursday, May 26, in Room B311 in the Georgia World Congress Center. Volkow will serve as discussant for both symposia, which begin at 2 p.m.

“These two symposia focus on what we know about drug addiction in terms of what adaptations are known to occur with chronic use of drugs and how that neural adaptation leads to the process of addiction,” Volkow said.

In addition to sponsoring the four sessions, NIDA is sponsoring the New Research Young Investigator Poster Session on Monday, May 23, from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. in Rooms B302-305 in the Georgia World Congress Center. ▪