ADAI News

Drug Trends in the Seattle-King County Area, 2008

The Community Epidemiology Work Group, led by ADAI research scientist Caleb Banta-Green, today released the 2008 drug trends report for Seattle-King County.  Key findings include:

• Heroin continues to be a problem locally, though deaths related to heroin use in 2008 declined slightly to 59 out of 256 total drug-caused deaths;
• 24% of decedents were under age 30, a figure similar to that in 2007 and up slightly from the previous seven years;
• Heroin treatment admissions were second only to cocaine among illegal drugs for adults, with an increase in the number (240) and proportion (13%) of young adults ages 18 to 25, compared with numbers from a decade ago;
• At the same time, both the number (401) and proportion (22%) of treatment admissions for individuals over age 50 doubled from 1999 through 2008.

View the full report here | Read the press release here

Research Funding: ADAI Small Grants Program

The Alcohol & Drug Abuse Institute invites applications from University of Washington researchers for its Small Grants research awards. Proposed research must be in alcohol or drug abuse-related fields. The maximum amount considered for funding has been increased to $30,000 for faculty and research scientists. The funding limit for predoctoral students and postdoctoral fellows remains at $20,000.  Small Grants funding is available to UW researchers only.

The next application deadline is 5:00 p.m., October 15, 2008. Questions concerning the application process or suitability of a potential project should be directed to the Institute at 206-543-0937. Application guidelines are available on the ADAI website.

Research Positions in Seattle-area Substance Abuse Treatment Programs

The Alcohol & Drug Abuse Institute currently lists openings for several full-time research jobs in community-based substance abuse treatment centers in the Seattle area.  All of the jobs are funded by grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). 

For details about each position and contact information, see the ADAI Employment webpage:   http://depts.washington.edu/adai/jobs.htm

Screening and Brief Interventions for Alcohol in Trauma Centers Save Lives

Alcohol misuse, ranging from binge drinking to chronic alcohol dependence, is the leading risk factor for trauma center admissions in the United States.  Researchers at the Harborview Injury Prevention & Research Center, including ADAI director Dennis Donovan, proposed that clinicians could capitalize on the "teachable moment" that admission to a trauma center provides to increase the patient's motivation to change their alcohol use.   The team received funding from the CDC to institute an alcohol screening and brief intervention program at Harborview, which was found to significantly reduce subsequent alcohol use and decrease the chance of repeat trauma center admission by nearly 50%.  If broadly implemented, this program could lead to a cost-savings of $1.82 billion dollars annually in direct medical costs.  Through CDC's funding and Harborview's evidence, trauma centers and physicians are now poised to better serve injured patients, attend to alcohol problems, reduce future injuries, and save lives!

Read more about this CDC-funded, Seattle success story at:  http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/erpo/success_story.pdf.

Beth Dannhardt of Triumph Treatment Services Wins 2007 Award

Beth Dannhardt, Director of Triumph Treatment Services in Yakima, has been selected as the recipient of the 2007 Nichols Leadership Award.  The Nichols Leadership Award is presented annually by Residence XII to an individual or group who has consistently demonstrated community leadership to better meet the needs of chemically dependent women and their families.  Triumph Treatment Services is one of the Community Treatment Programs (CTPs) participating in the Pacific Northwest Node of NIDA's Clinical Trials Network (CTN).

Congratulations, Beth!

Research Jobs Open at Alcohol & Drug Abuse Institute

The Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute at the University of Washington has 3 new positions available in research projects involving community-based research and health disparities among American Indian tribal groups.  In addition, several other UW departments are currently seeking staff for addiction related research projects.

For brief descriptions of each position and links to details and application instructions, see the Employment page on the ADAI website: http://depts.washington.edu/adai/jobs.htm 

ADAI Director Leads CSAT Panel on Relapse Prevention & Recovery Support

Dennis Donovan, PhD was selected by the Center of Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) to chair a consensus panel which will develop a new Treatment Improvement Protocol (TIP) on "Relapse Prevention and Recovery Support."  The panel includes leading researchers and clinicians from around the country.   

The group met in Bethesda this month to review and document existing models and supporting research on relapse and relapse prevention, and the role of community support in the treatment and recovery processes.  Panelists role-played vignettes of client, counselor, and community support personnel interactions, and developed clinical decision trees and "master clinician" notes that provide the rationale for specific interventions demonstrated in these vignettes. Each vignette had specific clinician goals that were tied to specific learning objectives and counselor competencies found in the CSAT Technical Assistance Publication (TAP) 21: Addiction Counseling Competencies: The Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes of Professional Practice. The session-by-session interactions in each vignette were videotaped and will be developed into a chapter for the TIP in which the specific techniques will be demonstrated and the master clinician notes and decision trees inserted.

A second consensus panel meeting in December 2007 will consist of community-based treatment program administrators. This meeting will focus on issues of implementation and integration of relapse prevention interventions and community recovery support services into treatment programs.

Dr. Donovan is a professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences and Director of the Alcohol & Drug Abuse Institute at the University of Washington.

Joe Merrill one of Seattle's Top Docs

This month's issue of Seattle Magazine features their annual list of the area's "Top Doctors," the result of a survey sent to over 11,000 medical professionals in the Greater Seattle area asking them to identify who they believe are the premier doctors working in a range of specialties.

In the area of Addiction Medicine, former ADAI Research Scientist and RWJF Fellow Joseph Merrill, M.D., M.P.H. was named one the best in Seattle.  Dr. Merrill works at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, and is also an investigator for the University of Washington Center for Healthcare Improvement for Addictions, Mental Illness, and Medically Vulnerable Populations (CHAMMP). 

Congratulations, Joe!

Also ranked "Tops" in Addiction Medicine were Tom Horst, M.D., M.P.H. (Group Health Cooperative), Steven Juergens, M.D. (private practice), John Patz, D.O. (Ballard Recovery Services), and Jim Walsh, M.D. (Swedish Medical Center).

Katie Witkiewitz Joins ADAI Research Staff

Katie Witkiewitz, PhD, has joined the ADAI staff as a Research Scientist beginning July 2007.  She received her PhD from the UW in 2005, where she completed the Clinical Psychology graduate program and an internship in Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences. After that, she took a faculty position in the Department of Psychology at the University of Illinois - Chicago before returning to the UW. 

Dr. Witkiewitz will be working on two NIAAA-funded studies.  One will delineate patterns of drinking by individuals who have received alcohol treatment; the goal is to provide clinicians and their clients with a heightened awareness of risk factors that may predispose an individual to relapse following treatment.  The other project will use data from the COMBINE study to evaluate mechanisms of behavior change following a cognitive-behavior intervention for alcohol dependence.   (more)

Dr. Witkiewitz is author of numerous research papers and co-editor of the book Therapist's Guide to Evidence-Based Relapse Prevention, (Academic Press, 2007).

ADAI Small Grant Awards for Spring 2007

ADAI funded 3 Small Grants awards for the March 2007 round of applications.  Abstracts of these projects can be viewed on the ADAI Small Grants webpage.  Congratulations to the recipients!

• Monique Cherrier, PhD, Research Assistant Professor, Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences.  Neurocognitive Side Effects and Pharmacodynamics of Methadone in Older Adults
• Kristen P. Lindgren, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences. An Investigation of Controlled and Automatic Cognitive Mediators of the Relation between Sexual Assault and Problem Drinking in College Women
• Megan A. Moreno, MD, MSEd, Fellow in Adolescent Medicine, Post-doctoral Trainee, Pediatrics.  Use of Social Networking Websites for Identification and Screening of Problem Drinking in Adolescents.

The next deadline for ADAI Small Grant applications is October 15, 2007.  You can read more about ADAI Small Grants Program and application process here.

ADAI funded 3 Small Grants awards for the March 2007 round of applications.  Abstracts of these projects can be viewed on the ADAI Small Grants webpage.  Congratulations to the recipients!

• Monique Cherrier, PhD, Research Assistant Professor, Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences.  Neurocognitive Side Effects and Pharmacodynamics of Methadone in Older Adults
• Kristen P. Lindgren, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences. An Investigation of Controlled and Automatic Cognitive Mediators of the Relation between Sexual Assault and Problem Drinking in College Women
• Megan A. Moreno, MD, MSEd, Fellow in Adolescent Medicine, Post-doctoral Trainee, Pediatrics.  Use of Social Networking Websites for Identification and Screening of Problem Drinking in Adolescents.

The next deadline for ADAI Small Grant applications is October 15, 2007.  You can read more about ADAI Small Grants Program and application process here.