ADAI News

ADAI Funds Marijuana Research Studies with I-502 Monies

Using funds from the I-502 Dedicated Marijuana Fund intended for marijuana research at the University of Washington, ADAI awarded eight marijuana research grants during the last two grant cycles.   The goal of the Small Grant program is to stimulate research by providing initial funding for promising pilot projects which may ultimately be developed into full research studies with outside grant support.   

October 2015 cycle

• Kendall Browne, PhD, VA Puget Sound Health Care System, Cannabis Use in Veterans with PTSD
• Katarina Guttmannova, PhD, Social Work, Marijuana Legislation and Adolescent Substance Use
• Lauren C. Kruse, PhD, Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Translational Model of Binge Ethanol and THC Intake in Adolescent Rats
• Isaac C. Rhew, PhD, MPH, Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Marijuana Use Disorders from Adolescence into Young Adulthood

March 2016 Cycle

• Megan A. Moreno, MD, MSEd, MPH, Seattle Children’s Hospital, Assessing Marijuana Promotions on Social Media
  
• Robin Harwick, PhD, UW Alcohol & Drug Abuse Institute, Consumers’ Perspectives on the Function of Marijuana in Their Lives
• Natalia Kleinhans, PhD, Radiology, Linking Sight and Smell: fMRI Correlates of Marijuana Craving in Adults
  
• Matthew C. Enkema, BA and Mary Larimer, PhD, Center for the Study of Health & Risk Behaviors, Craving and Cannabis Misuse Among Young Adults

Grants for non-marijuana studies are awarded with funds from the regular Small Grants program.  To read more about these projects and for information about the ADAI Small Grants Program, visit our website: http://adai.uw.edu/grants/smgrant.htm

Call for Abstracts: Addiction Health Services Research Conference, Oct. 13-15, 2016 in Seattle

Join addiction health services and implementation science researchers, along with practitioners and policy makers, for the 2016 Addiction Health Services Research Conference  in Seattle, October 13-15, at the Motif Seattle Hotel. 

AHSR 2016: http://ahsr2016.org

The Call-for-Abstracts is open!  Major theme areas include: 

• Integration of Addiction Medicine:  This theme concerns issues related to the integration of addiction treatment and primary health care, addiction services in non-health settings, care coordination models, implementation strategies, and the impact of the ACA on treatment for substance use disorders.
• Health Disparities & Equities:  This theme concerns issues related to treatment access, quality and outcomes for diverse populations.
• Changing Landscapes, Changing Policies:  This theme may include issues related to evolving policies on marijuana legalization and/or policing, medication assisted treatment, harm reduction (e.g. access to needle exchange or safe injection sites), naloxone distribution and training, etc.
• Co-occurring Substance Use & Infectious Disease: This theme concerns issues of prevention and treatment of co-occurring substance use with HIV/AIDS, HCV and other infectious diseases

Hosted by the Alcohol & Drug Abuse Institute at the University of Washington and by the NW Addiction Technology Transfer Center at Oregon Health & Sciences University.

UW Ranks in Top 10 Medical Schools for Addiction Programs - Again!

Once again the University of Washington is ranked among the Top Ten U.S. medical schools for drug and alcohol abuse programs.  Graduate programs in this category incorporate behavioral science, treatment and prevention techniques for patients with addictions. The UW is 8th in the ranking for 2016. View the top ten medical schools for drug and alcohol programs.

In its annual ranking of graduate programs, U.S. News & World Report ranked the UW School of Medicine No. 1 overall for primary care and family practice, and the School of Nursing No. 1 in the doctorate of nursing practice program.

In all, the UW has 34 graduate programs among the nation’s top 10 in U.S. News & World Report's Best Graduate School rankings. Among those, 12 health, nursing and medical programs – and another eight public affairs and science programs – are in the top five. See all UW Medicine and other health sciences graduate program rankings at HS NewsBeat and a related story in the Seattle Times.

UW Research Helps Define Advice About Drinking & Pregnancy

Research from the UW's Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Diagnostic & Prevention Network helped lead to a new recommendation that no amount of alcohol should be considered safe during pregnancy. That advice came in a report issued last week by the American Academy of Pediatrics. 

The report, "Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders," in the November 2015 issue of Pediatrics (published online Oct. 19) stresses that no amount of alcohol should be considered safe to drink during any trimester of pregnancy. - See more at: https://www.aap.org/en-us/about-the-aap/aap-press-room/pages/AAP-Says-No-Amount-of-Alcohol-Should-be-Considered-Safe-During-Pregnancy.aspx#sthash.kzjCgCJj.dpuf

The report, "Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders," in the November 2015 issue of Pediatrics (published online Oct. 19) stresses that no amount of alcohol should be considered safe to drink during any trimester of pregnancy. - See more at: https://www.aap.org/en-us/about-the-aap/aap-press-room/pages/AAP-Says-No-Amount-of-Alcohol-Should-be-Considered-Safe-During-Pregnancy.aspx#sthash.kzjCgCJj.dpuf

The report, "Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders," in the November 2015 issue of Pediatrics (published online Oct. 19) stresses that no amount of alcohol should be considered safe to drink during any trimester of pregnancy. - See more at: https://www.aap.org/en-us/about-the-aap/aap-press-room/pages/AAP-Says-No-Amount-of-Alcohol-Should-be-Considered-Safe-During-Pregnancy.aspx#sthash.kzjCgCJj.dpuf

"It just sounds ultra-conservative. But when it comes to alcohol I cannot stress enough if you have the ability to not drink at all during pregnancy, don't drink at all. It's just not worth the risk," said Dr. Susan Astley, a UW Professor of Epidemiology and Pediatrics.  Dr. Astley and other UW physicians and researchers have been at the forefront of studying and diagnosing Fetal Alcohol Syndrome since its discovery in the 1970s.

Read the full story from King 5 TV.

Dangerous Rates of Co-prescribing Opioids and Sedatives

Mark Sullivan, UW professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the executive director of COPE for Chronic Pain CME at the UW School of Medicine, commented in the August 2015 issue of the journal Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety on the risks of prescribing opioids and sedatives. “We are making progress on decreasing opioid prescribing, but co-prescribing of opioids and sedatives have not decreased.”

Sullivan said most prescription opioid deaths commonly involve alcohol, sedatives and/or illicit drugs such as heroin. But the most fatal combination is opioids and common benzodiazepines, which are medications prescribed for depression, anxiety and sleep. For more information, see the release from COPE.

UW-led Coalition Launches Plan to Reduce Youth Problems

A national coalition of experts that includes two University of Washington researchers has a bold plan to reduce behavioral health problems such as violence and depression among young people across the country by 20 percent in a decade.

And their proposal rests on one simple principle: prevention.

The group’s paper, recently published on the National Academy of Medicine website, recommends implementing evidence-based prevention programs on a national scale to reduce a host of problems ranging from drinking to delinquent behavior, anxiety and risky driving. It notes that treatment, lost productivity and crime related to behavioral health problems among young people cost an estimated $247 billion a year.

Lead author David Hawkins, founding director of the Social Development Research Group, an organization within the UW School of Social Work, said the typical approach to addressing behavioral health problems among young people has been to step in only after they take hold.

“So much of what we do is to wait until there are big problems, then we start intervening,” he said. “As consumers of programs that are costing public money, we need to ask, ‘What’s the scientific evidence that this works?’”

Hawkins has seen that evidence firsthand. Communities That Care, the community-level prevention system developed by Hawkins and Social Development Research Group co-founder Richard Catalano, a co-author on the paper, has been shown to cut smoking and alcohol use among young people by more than 30 percent, and overall juvenile crime by 25 percent. The paper highlights other prevention initiatives that have helped prevent sexual behavior, self-injury, anxiety, unwanted pregnancy, violence and other youth problems.

Read the full story at UW Today

UW Study on Adult Marijuana and Tobacco Use

Researchers at the University of Washington are conducting a confidential study seeking adult marijuana and tobacco users who are interested in trying to quit marijuana.  The study offers a 12-24 week program that includes a combination of individual and computer assisted counseling sessions.  Incentives are provided for achieving abstinence from marijuana, based on twice weekly drug testing.   Participants can earn up to $435 over the course of treatment for being abstinent from marijuana.  The program does not involve any groups.  Each session is centered on identifying, learning, and practicing the skills needed to quit smoking marijuana.  The program will also provide assistance with quitting tobacco for those who are interested, including free Nicotine Replacement Therapy (gum, lozenges, and patches).  All services are provided free. Participants must be available to come to the study location in Seattle’s University District two times per week for twelve to twenty-four weeks and to participate in research assessments (also compensated). 

More about the study...

Questioning The Safety Of Opiate Prescriptions (KUOW)

KUOW's Marcie Sillman talks with University of Washington pain specialist Dr. Jane Ballantyne about evolving attitudes and prescribing practices around  prescription opiates. Listen on KUOW 

 
Related:

Interview: King County Heroin Deaths Up 58 Percent In 2014

Report: Drug Trends in the Seattle-King County Area, 2014

Resource: StopOverdose.org

UW Ranks in Top 10 Medical Schools for Programs in Addiction - Again!

Once again the University of Washington is ranked among the Top Ten U.S. medical schools for drug and alcohol abuse programs.  Graduate programs in this category incorporate behavioral science, treatment and prevention techniques for patients with addictions.

In its annual ranking of graduate programs, U.S. News & World Report ranked the UW School of Medicine No. 1 overall for primary care.

In addition, UW gained high marks for teaching in several specialty areas, including No. 1 in both family medicine and rural medicine.  UW Medicine is ranked No. 10 in the specialty category of drug and alcohol abuse.   View the Top Ten medical schools for drug and alcohol programs.

Online Training for Healthcare Providers on Medicinal Cannabis

The University of Washington Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute  launched a new interactive online education program that gives healthcare providers the knowledge and tools they need to discuss medicinal cannabis with their patients suffering from chronic pain.  

Medicinal cannabis has been shown to be an effective therapy in the treatment of chronic pain.  Though a legally available option in Washington State, recommendations for medicinal cannabis may be avoided by providers who lack knowledge about the potential benefits and risks of this approach in managing chronic pain, and confidence in discussing this option with their patients. 

 “Washington State passed one of the earliest laws allowing for the use of medical marijuana by qualified patients.  We now have the legal marijuana as well for non-medical use.  Thus, regardless of personal opinions or viewpoints, it is critical that all health care providers in our state possess a good working knowledge of the pharmacology of cannabis,” said Dr. Gregory Carter, Medical Director of St. Luke’s Rehabilitation Institute in Spokane and a key instructor in the training.

"Medicinal Cannabis and Chronic Pain" was developed with a grant awarded to ADAI Research Scientist Dr. Beatriz Carlini by the Washington Office of the Attorney General to offer non-judgmental, science-based information to healthcare providers and the general public.

 “Our ultimate goal is to help clinicians to make informed clinical decisions on this topic. The information provided during the trainings aims to destigmatize cannabis and increase providers’ comfort level in talking to patients about medicinal cannabis,” Carlini said. Included on the training website are patient education materials and screening and clinical tools for providers.  Up to 2.0 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™ are available for health care providers who successfully complete the online course.

More information about this project and a link to the training can be found at http://adai.uw.edu/mcacp/.