Drug Supply Reduction and Drug-related Crime in the EU

Categories: Enforcement, Treatment

Sponsor: European Commission, DGLS

PI: Beau Kilmer, Stijn Hoorens

This work will provide a framework and beta data system to serve as the "proof of concept" for the development of a more comprehensive information system involving standardised data collected from all Member States as well as other relevant data from European agencies. The information system will include data elements that are critical for monitoring the supply of illicit drugs as well as drug-related crime enabling the evaluation of effectiveness, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness of alternative policy approaches within Europe.

Brief Substance Use Intervention for Youth in Teen Court

Category: Prevention

Sponsor: National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)

PI: Elizabeth D'Amico

Start Date: September 2007

End Date: August 2012

This study will develop and test a theoretically based group intervention among teens who have committed a first time alcohol or other drug misdemeanor offense. These teens have been referred by the juvenile Probation Department to a Teen Court program because they have not been found to need more serious intervention such as treatment or detention. We will examine the impact of our new intervention on cognitive and behavioral outcomes at a three-month follow up.

Brief Voluntary Alcohol and Drug Intervention for Middle School Youth

Category: Prevention

Sponsor: National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse (NIAAA)

PI: Elizabeth D'Amico

Start Date: September 2007

End Date: June 2012

The current study builds on our previous work in which we developed and tested a voluntary after school intervention that targeted alcohol and drug use among middle school youth. The main objective of the proposed 5-year longitudinal study is to build on our initial work by conducting a more rigorous test of Project CHOICE in 16 middle schools.

Modeling the Effect of Cigarette Advertising on Adolescent Smoking

Categories: Prevention, Modeling & Forecasting

Sponsor: National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)

PI: William Shadel

Start Date: April 2008

End Date: March 2011

The purpose of this study is to experimentally model how exposure to cigarette advertising interacts with individual differences to promote higher intentions to smoke among never smoking adolescents.

Getting to Outcomes and Underage Drinking

Categories: Prevention, Drug Policy & Trends

Sponsor: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

PI: Matthew Chinman

Start Date: April 2008

End Date: March 2011

An evaluation of a new intervention based on the GTO model—Getting To Outcomes for Underage Drinking (GTO-UD), which is designed to help communities successfully translate evidence-based underage drinking prevention strategies into practice by building their prevention capacity.

Drug Use, Social Context, and HIV Risk in Homeless Youth

Category: Drug Use & Consequences

Sponsor: National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)

PI: Joan Tucker

Start Date: April 2007

End Date: March 2011

The major goal of this study is to investigate the social context of drug use and high-risk sexual behavior in a probability sample of homeless youth (ages 13-23) in Los Angeles County.

Role of Race in Criminal Justice Referrals to Treatment

Categories: Treatment, Drug Policy & Trends

Sponsor: National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)

PI: Nancy Nicosia

Start Date: March 2008

End Date: February 2011

To examine the adjudication of drug offenders in California from 1982- 2005 to determine the extent to which race/ethnicity has played a role in final disposition and referral to drug treatment.

The Effect of Drug Treatment on Community-Level Health and Social Outcomes in California

Cateogry: Treatment

Sponsor: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

PI: Nancy Nicosia

Start Date: October 2008

End Date: September 2010

Drug courts and diversion programs are innovative strategies aimed reducing these harms by steering drug users into drug treatment programs. Despite widespread adoption, critical questions remain about their effectiveness. This study will examine whether treatment programs reduce the health and social harms associated with drug use in California communities and how that relationship varies across demographic groups. 

Evaluating Mechanisms of Change in Smoking Intervention

Category: Prevention

Sponsor: University of California

PI: Hank Green

Start Date: July 2008

End Date: June 2010

This project will build on the existing Project CHOICE, the first voluntary after-school smoking prevention program for middle school students. This project will add a new component of collecting additional information on student friendship networks and how they change over time.

Evaluation of Mentally Ill in the Veterans Health Administration

Category: Treatment

Sponsor: ALTARUM (Dept of Veteran Affairs)

PI: Katherine Watkins

Start Date: June 2006

End Date: June 2010

Performance assessment of the Veterans' Health Administration's care of seriously mentally ill patients

Social Context of Smoking in Adolescence and Young Adulthood

Categories: Prevention, Drug Use & Consequences

Sponsor: Tobacco Related Disease Research Program

PI: Joan Tucker

Start Date: July 2007

End Date: June 2010

The goal of this study is to advance the understanding of peer influences on youth smoking by using social network analysis to investigate how friendship networks are related to patterns of smoking over time.

Economic Cost of Drug Use

Categories: Drug Use & Consequences, Drug Policy & Trends, Modeling & Forecasting

Sponsor: National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)

PI: Rosalie Pacula

Start Date: May 2006

End Date: April 2010

The specific aims of this 4-year study are to estimate the total economic cost of drug abuse in the United States using a more traditional economics approach and adopting a chronic disease perspective.  A microsimulation modeling technique is used to evaluate costs from an epidemiological standpoint, empirically accounting for the uncertainty and heterogeneity of costs and consequences that occur among drug users.

Assessment of the Adolescent Therapeutic Community Treatment Process

Category: Treatment

Sponsor: National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)

PI: Maria Orlando Edelen

Start Date: April 2008

End Date: March 2010

The goal of this project is to refine counselor- and client-report measures of adolescent treatment process and examine their psychometric properties among adolescents enrolled in residential Therapeutic Community substance abuse treatment programs at one of two participating TC organizations.

Impact of Amphetamine Abuse on Health and Crime

Categories: Drug Use & Consequences, Drug Policy & Trends

Sponsor: National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)

PI: Nancy Nicosia

Start Date: September 2005

End Date: August 2009

This project examines the impact of a 1995 DEA intervention on drug markets, public health outcomes and crime in California and documents the evolution of methamphetamine use in California.

Disparities in Alcohol Problems and Access to Care

Categories: Treatment, Prevention

Sponsor: National Institute on Alcohol Abuse & Alcoholism

PI: Roland Sturm

Start Date: August 2008

End Date: July 2009

This project on the epidemiology of alcohol-related problems will integrate data from multiple sources to investigate environmental correlates of underage drinking and adult problem drinking.

Understanding the Temporal Effects of Parental Divorces on Youth Behaviors

Category: Drug Use & Consequences

Sponsor: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)

PI: Jeremy Arkes

Start Date: August 2007

End Date: July 2009

This project aims to examine the temporal effects of parental divorce on teenager's risky behavior (substance use, sexual behavior, and criminal activity) and younger children's problem behavior.

Adolescent Treatment Services: Young Adult Outcomes

Category: Treatment

Sponsor: National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)

PI: Andrew Morral

Start Date: July 2004

End Date: June 2009

This project assesses the effects of adolescent treatment on key outcomes observed during young adulthood, the critical developmental period during which many people discontinue a variety of problem behaviors, while others establish lifelong patterns of drug use, crime and poor economic functioning. We will examine treatment effects on drug problems, HIV risk behaviors, health, criminal activity, health service utilization, psychosocial and economic functioning, and developmental transitions.

Alcohol Policies & Sexual Risk in HIV Positive Adults

Category: Modeling & Forecasting

Sponsor: NIAAA

PI: Rebecca Collins

Start Date: September 2005

End Date: June 2009

This project is collecting data on state and local alcohol policies and linking it to survey data describing the sexual risk behavior of a national probability sample of people living with HIV (drawn from the HCSUS sample). The goal is to test whether alcohol policies influence the likelihood of HIV-transmission from an infected to an uninfected individual by affecting the probability of unprotected anal, vaginal, or oral sex.

The Role of Trauma Exposure in Drug Use & HIV Risk

Category: Drug Use & Consequences

Sponsor: NIMH

PI: Grant Marshall

Start Date: July 2004

End Date: June 2009

To investigate the association between traumatic experiences and HIV risk behaviors, including three samples of participants: injection drug users, non-injection drug users, and non-drug users.

Group Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for Depression

Category: Drug Use & Consequences

Sponsor: National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse (NIAAA)

PI: Katherine Watkins

Start Date: August 2005

End Date: June 2009

Investigators will develop and test a group CBT intervention for depression in residential substance abuse treatment centers.

Evaluating the Casual Pathways from Lapse to Relapse in Smokers

Category: Treatment

Sponsor: National Cancer Institute

PI: Bill Shadel

Start Date: July 2008

End Date: June 2012

The goal of this project is to uncover the psychological variables that cause smokers to relapse. The results will be used to inform a new generation of more successful smoking cessation treatments.

Alcohol Use and HIV Risk Among Impoverished Women

Category: Drug Use & Consequences

Sponsor: NIAAA

PI: Suzanne Wenzel

Start Date: September 2005

End Date: May 2010

This study will achieve a more comprehensive understanding of the relationship between alcohol use/misuse and HIV risk behaviors among the highly vulnerable population of impoverished women by attending to the social context in which these behaviors occur.

Alcohol Use & Abuse Following Traumatic Injury

Category: Drug Use & Consequences

Sponsor: National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse (NIAAA)

PI: Grant Marshall

Start Date: May 2003

End Date: April 2009

This study examines key unresolved issues concerning the dynamic relationship between posttraumatic alcohol abuse and psychological morbidity

Enhancing Prevention Capacity with Developmental Assets and Getting to Outcomes

Category: Prevention

Sponsor: National Institute on Drug Abuse

PI: Matt Chinman

Start Date: June 2008

End Date: March 2013

This project will assess the impact of the Assets-Getting To Outcomes model on prevention capacity, performance, and youth outcomes in 12 community-based prevention coalitions.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Homeless Women with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Category: Treatment

Sponsor: National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

PI: Suzanne Wenzel

Start Date: May 2006

End Date: March 2010

Homeless women suffer from traumas and PTSD at rates typically higher than among housed women. Although effective, empirically validated treatments for PTSD are available, homeless women are unlikely to avail themselves of mental health services despite high levels of need. This three-year study addresses a critical gap in treatment research to meet the mental health service needs of homeless women.

Long Term Results of Project ALERT Plus

Category: Prevention

Sponsor: National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)

PI: Phyllis Ellickson

Start Date: September 2003

End Date: June 2009 (Extension granted)

The project proposes to follow the ALERT Plus field trial cohort for two additional waves of data collection to determine the long-term effects of the drug prevention program.

Group Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Depression

Category: Treatment

Sponsor: National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)

PI: Katherine Watkins

Start Date: September 2006

End Date: May 2010 (Extension granted)

Investigators will develop and test a group CBT intervention to treat depression in an outpatient substance abuse treatment setting.