Addiction Issues Get Prominent Place On Meeting Agenda

This year’s annual meeting features a tremendous opportunity for psychiatrists to increase their knowledge base concerning one of the field’s most pervasive challenges—the treatment of patients with substance abuse disorders who have concurrent mental health disorders.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and APA have worked closely to present a special research-based program track, “Integrating the Science of Addiction Into Psychiatric Practice,” at next month’s annual meeting in New York City. The nearly 30 sessions in the track are made up of varied formats, including lectures, symposia, and issue workshops. The diverse topics range from the basic science of signal integration in the brain to clinically directed, treatment-oriented discussions on potential anticraving medications.

Some of the world’s leading drug abuse and addiction researchers and clinicians will address issues such as stress, trauma, and drug abuse; obesity and addiction; and the interplay between attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and drug abuse.

Geetha Jayaram, M.D., chair of APA’s Scientific Program Committee, and Nora Volkow, M.D., director of NIDA, anticipate that the track “will raise awareness of new and emerging issues in addiction and psychiatry and provide important information related to best practices and treatment strategies.”

Volkow said that the issue of comorbidity is especially important to her as NIDA director. “Why are substance abuse and mental illness comorbid? What is that comorbidity telling us about the changes occurring in the brain, the neurobiological underpinnings of mental illnesses like schizophrenia? Importantly,” she continued, “how does this comorbidity affect treatment, and how does it affect prognosis?”

Volkow will present Distinguished Psychiatrist Lecture 13 on Tuesday, May 4, at 9 a.m., titled “Why Does the Human Brain Become Addicted?”

The NIDA program track is posted online at http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/39/6/37. ▪