• The Leadership’s publications and newly developed airport diorama were prominently displayed at the 94th Annual Meeting of the of the National Governors Association hosted by Idaho Governor Dirk Kempthorne and First Lady Patricia Kempthorne. The meeting was held in Boise, July 13-16.

• In Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia Eagles football team together with the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PLCB) tackled underage drinking at a pre-season game against the Baltimore Ravens in Philadelphia. All fans received a full-color poster featuring Pro-Bowl kicker David Akers and reading, “Underage Drinking Will Kick Your Life Away.” Former First Lady of Pennsylvania Michele Ridge and the PLCB have been very strong supporters of the Leadership initiative, and since becoming First Lady, Kathy Schweiker has maintained her active involvement in this issue. Such sustained involvement makes a tremendous difference in broadening support for the initiative’s goals.

The Leadership’s prevention message is being widely disseminated through both its web site at www.alcoholfreechildren.org and its publications. The web site received over one million hits in the third quarter. The initiative has developed eight print and video materials, three of which are available in English and Spanish, with a total of 497,405 materials distributed since January 2000. Requests for materials are growing at a rapid rate, with 203,306 materials requested in just the first half of 2002. Materials were also distributed in response to requests from 40 foreign countries.

The second phase of the usability study of the NIAAA web site has been completed. Results will be provided by the end of September. This second phase focused more on the scientist/researcher  than on the lay public.

A number of new items have been added to the web site including a new NIAAA AIDS/HIV web page.

OFFICE AND DIVISION ACTIVITIES

The following are selected activities undertaken by the Acting Director since the June Council meeting:

Dr. Kington participated in the planning of, gave opening remarks, and participated in the day-long Hispanic Alcohol Research and Career Development Planning Meeting.

Dr. Kington was invited to deliver a presentation to Science and Policy Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Kington discussed how science policy is conducted within the Federal Government.

On June, 29, Dr. Kington presented at the Official Opening of the joint RSA/ISBRA meeting on current and future initiatives and activities at the NIH and at the NIAAA. Also at the RSA/ISBRA meeting, Dr. Kington presented a talk entitled, "College Drinking Task Force Report and Associated Materials," at the Symposium on College Drinking, and participated in an RSA-sponsored workshop entitled, "De-mystifying the Legislative Process."

Dr. Kington, participated in the National Institutes of Health Rhode Island Public Health Forum on Women's Health sponsored by Representative Patrick Kennedy (D-RI), House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, HHS, and Education. The forum was in cooperation with Brown University, Rhode Island Academic Medicine Coalition, and  Women and Infants Hospital. Dr. Kington addressed "Behavioral and Social Factors in Women's Health" during the opening plenary session, and co-chaired a breakout session on "Drinking Among College Women" with Dr. Peter Monti, Director, Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies, Brown University. Dr. Monti presented on the topic "Problem Drinking Among College Women: A Local Perspective" at the breakout session.

Dr. Dufour represented NIAAA at the CDC-sponsored meeting of the Scientific Advisory Committee for the development of the Alcohol-Related Disease Impact (ARDI) software. The meeting was held September 4-5 at the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention in Decatur, Georgia. The original ARDI software, which was developed by NIAAA and distributed to the states by CDC, was designed to track alcohol-related deaths at the State level. The meeting in which Dr. Dufour participated is one in a continuing series of meetings to update the ARDI software and to develop a web site that among other things will allow states to calculate alcohol-related morbidity, mortality, and economic costs.

Dr. Dufour is representing NIAAA at the First National Conference on Birth Defects, Developmental Disabilities, and Disability and Health, September 17-19 in Atlanta, Georgia. The Conference, which is sponsored by the CDC, is addressing a broad range of interests supporting the mission and future direction of the newest CDC Center, The National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities.

Dr. Faye Calhoun provided the opening address for the first summer workshop and meeting of children affected by prenatal alcohol exposure and their caregivers. The event was held in Grand Rapids, Michigan, August 15-17, and organized by Barbara Wybrecht and the Michigan FAS Family Support Group. The event was funded by the FAS Center for Excellence, CSAP, SAMHSA ; the WK Kellogg Foundation; and the Alcohol Research Center of Michigan. Affected children from many states and from Canada participated in the event. A Town Hall meeting conducted on the final day allowed state administrators as well as representatives from Federal agencies and advocacy groups to hear the issues and recommendations of families and affected young people.

Dr. Calhoun provided a plenary address for the Oscar Parsons Summer Institute on Substance-Related Disorders. The Institute was held on July 15-17 and sponsored by the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.

Collaborative and Special Health Programs Branch

A satellite workshop was presented June 28 at the Annual RSA Meeting in collaboration with Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science. The workshop was organized by Steve R. Mitchell, Ph.D., Eric Bing, M.D., and Kendall Bryant, Ph.D. The presentations, which focused on the associations of alcohol use and abuse with HIV/AIDS, addressed  the effects of HIV and alcohol on the brain ("Neuropsychological, EEG, and MRI studies”); behavioral and social issues ("Entwining Epidemics:  Behavioral and Prevention Aspects of the Relationship between Alcohol and HIV/AIDS"), and clinical and epidemiological aspects (“Brief HIV and Alcohol Combined Interventions for Women”).

Dr. Bryant co-facilitated an Office on AIDS Research-sponsored Skills Building Workshop at the International AIDS Meeting in Barcelona Spain. The workshop was designed to facilitate international applications to AIDS programs supported through NIH. Based on comments received from the international participants, it was a successful session providing useful and important information on the preparation of an NIH grant application, the NIH peer review process, and IC specific AIDS research and training programs.

The AIDS International Research Training Program Award is intended to solicit and fund proposals to develop innovative, collaborative training programs that can contribute to the long-term goal of building sustainable research capacity in alcohol and HIV/AIDS and HIV-related conditions at developing country institutions. NIAAA, which is participating in this program in collaboration with the NIH Fogarty International Institute, is cofunding four Phase 1 applications from eligible institutions to train or expand the capabilities of developing country institutions to engage in HIV/AIDS and HIV-related research, with an emphasis on developing future applications with an alcohol research focus.

Nine developmental grants were funded in response to RFA AA-02-008: Effects of alcohol on HIV-1 invasion across the blood brain barrier (BBB) or placental barrier. Several  topics include: The Effect of Alcohol on HIV-1 Immune Responses and BBB Damage; Functional Genomics of the BBB; Alcohol and SIV Neuroinvasion in vivo and in vitro; and Ethanol, transactivator protein-overexpression (Tat), and the BBB. A grantee meeting is planned during FY 2003 in order to facilitate collaborative research efforts.

New Awards:  Of the 31 applications received in response to the NIAAA-wide RFA for Alcohol Health Disparities (RFA AA02-002), seven grants are being awarded. These grants include three new R01s, three exploratory/developmental grants (R21s), and one educational grant (R25).

Application of Geospatial Information Systems Analysis to Health Disparities Issues: Branch Chief Tom Gentry and Diana Urbanas attended the pre-RSA satellite session on “Community Geography: Theory Methods and Analysis” held at the Prevention Research Center in Berkeley, CA. This all-day session provided the theoretical background and specific examples of the application of Geospatial Information Systems (GIS) analysis of neighborhood and census-tract data appropriate to the assessment of complex environment/population interactions. While the specific models and methodologies are still evolving, GIS analysis offers a potentially useful way to assess health disparities issues. The variety of factors that contribute to racial and ethnic differences in environmental risk factors, alcohol consumption, and alcohol-related outcomes are complex, interactive and temporally changing. GIS-type methodology assessment of these factors may produce more relevant information to address these issues than the more general models currently used.

Malt Liquor Research:  OCR has initiated plans for a second grantee meeting in March, 2003 (Washington, DC). A summary report of the FY 2002 meeting is available for review. During the 2002 meeting, grantees noted the emergence of aggressive marketing for malternatives and alco-pop products to young people through magazine and television advertisements. NIAAA is tracking the emergence of these new alcohol products and will explore the impact of advertising in this area and related research developments during the 2003 meeting.

NIAAA-wide Health Disparities Conference: The first NIAAA-wide Health Disparities Conference is being planned for FY 2003 with substantial co-funding from the National Center for Minority Health and Health Disparities (NCMHD). The target date for this Conference is September 2003. The focus will include research on strategies to eliminate alcohol-related health disparities, development of research infrastructure at Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs), advancement of minority investigators in alcohol research, and information dissemination to minority and ethnic communities.

Collaborative Minority Institution Alcohol Research Development Programs: OCR is in the process of selecting a contractor to continue the evaluation of the current Collaborative Minority Institution Alcohol Research Development Programs (CMIARD) programs and to evaluate new CMIARD grantees. The evaluation will include recommendations for improving CMIARD core functions (e.g., collaborative partnership, administration function, research infrastructure, and information transfer) and the research development associated with these programs.  In addition, the contractor will evaluate the use of U24 and U01 cooperative agreement mechanisms to determine the impact on collaboration and research capacity for minority institutions and their faculty, students and staff. This evaluation guidance will help NIAAA to adjust activities and implement improvements in developing future CMIARD initiatives.

National Alcohol Screening Day (NASD): The 2002 National Alcohol Screening Day (April 11) was a major success. This year’s event, which focused on increasing public awareness about the health consequences of at-risk drinking, had a total of 2850 registered sites including 1198 primary care sites (clinics and private practice physicians), 1042 community sites (public hospitals, community centers, senior centers, addiction treatment programs), 561 college sites, and 49 major corporations. Compared with previous years and particularly with 2001, site registration levels have grown from 906 to 2850 sites in just one year, far exceeding (by 67percent) the original three year NASD goal of 1700. Other milestones in the one-year period between 2001 and 2002 include: overall site registration increase from 906 to 2850 sites (214.6 percent); total national attendance increase from 31,949 to 95,715 individuals (199.6 percent); and an increase in the total number of individuals screened from 17,127 to 51,869 (202.9 percent).

In preparation for NASD 2003 and beyond, a project advisory group meeting was held in Washington, DC on June 13-14. Experts in alcohol screening and early intervention, state alcohol treatment directors, outreach specialists, site directors from select NASD sites, and representatives from media relations and co-sponsoring organizations, participated in the meeting to help develop new ideas and strategies for NASD 2003 (April 10, 2003). Important areas discussed during this meeting included: Recruitment and Retention of Sites; Site Implementation; Screening and Brief Interventions for Alcohol Problems in the Emergency Department; A Review of the Screening and Scoring of the AUDIT for Use on NASD; Promotional and Media events; and Message Development. Highlighted at the meeting were regional updates of special events in the states of Florida, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Illinois, New York, and Washington, DC.

8th World Congress on Infant Mental Health:  Isabel Ellis organized and served as discussant on a symposium entitled “Identification of Risk During Infancy Associated with Parental Alcohol Problems” at the 8th World Congress on Infant Mental Health, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, July 15-19. U.S. experts on the symposium panel included Dr. Sandra Jacobson, Wayne State University School of Medicine; Dr. Rina Das Eiden, University of Buffalo; and Dr. Claire Coles, Emory University School of Medicine. The purpose of the symposium was to discuss the established association and conflict between early identification of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) and prevention of secondary disabilities. Identifying alcohol exposure is not common in the first year of life, and controversy continues about whether children younger than preschool age can be identified by physical features.

 The following are recent and near future activities undertaken by OPPL in support of NIAAA Outreach Activities:

American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT): NIAAA will release a guide on screening and brief interventions titled, Alcohol Problems in Intimate Relationships: Identification and Intervention; A Guide for Marriage and Family Therapists. This publication is the result of a partnership to help therapists incorporate screenings and brief interventions into their couples and family practices. Kelly Green Kahn is working with Bill Northey of AAMFT, and alcohol researchers Linda J. Roberts, Ph.D and Barbara S. McCrady, Ph.D. to incorporate relevant information into the clinical practices and decisions of marriage and family therapists. This guide will complement the Institute’s update of its manual on screenings and brief interventions for physicians and other health professionals.

Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (MADD):  NIAAA and MADD will cosponsor, for the fourth year, a research symposium designed to educate constituents on particular areas of alcohol research. The symposium will be held on October 17. in Anchorage, Alaska. This year the symposium will focus on college drinking in support of NIAAA's college drinking initiative. Over 1400 college students die alcohol-involved deaths every year; approximately 1100 of those deaths are automobile crash results. Presenters will review NIAAA's College Task Force report, discuss recommendations for prevention interventions, and suggest how community members can support the results of research in practical, real world settings.

New York Conference on Addictions and Special Populations:  NIAAA will cosponsor the Treating Addictions in Special Populations: Research Confronts Reality conference on October 7-8.. Kelly Green Kahn has worked with the conference coordinators at Binghamton University who organized this event in collaboration with a statewide planning committee. This conference will involve gathering a multi-disciplinary audience of researchers, educators, policymakers, practitioners, service providers, and students to enhance research to practice efforts, and to encourage teamwork and collaboration at all levels of addiction management with a special focus on the research and treatment needs of special populations. Charlene LeFauve, Ph.D. Treatment Research Branch, DCPR, will provide remarks during the conference and will present a workshop on treatment-related health disparities in special populations, including knowledge gaps. Joan Romaine and Fred Donodeo (OPPL) will present two poster sessions that focus on the NIAAA Task Force on College Drinking and its award-winning web site.

New York Collaboration, Phase II:  NIAAA completed its work with the New York State Office of Substance Abuse Services, the Association of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Providers of New York (ASAPNY), and the SAMHSA Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) on phase II of this project - the Researcher in Residence Program. The report is available on the NIAAA Web site at www.niaaa.nih.gov/.

NIAAA and CSAT are continuing to work with New York on research-to-practice projects. NIAAA will supplement the CSAT Practice Improvement Collaboratives Program to further assist researchers and practitioners in their joint efforts. NIAAA also continues its support for the ASAPNY annual conference.

North Carolina Collaboration, Phase II:  NIAAA completed its work with the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, and Substance Abuse Services, North Carolina treatment providers, and CSAT on Phase II – the Researcher in Residence Program. The report will be available on the NIAAA web site in the near future.

For this review round, Extramural Project Review Branch Staff completed 35 review meetings to evaluate a total of 240 grant applications, and 4 review meetings to evaluate a total of 13 contract proposals. Reviews completed include the following:

The remaining 79 grant applications were not submitted in response to any special initiatives and therefore were reviewed in the Institute's standing review sub-committees, or special emphasis panels.

Review committees with the NIH Center for Scientific Review (CSR) evaluated 126 research grant applications over the course of this review round.

Since the last meeting of the National Advisory Council, "Preventing Alcohol-Related Problems" has been printed and disseminated; "Alcohol and Comorbid Mental Health Disorders" has been sent to the printers; and work continues on issues focusing on women, epidemiology, and genetics. The full  text of all AR&H issues dating back to 1996 is available on NIAAA's web site and can be accessed at /niaaa.nih.gov/.

"Alcohol and HIV/AIDS," has been printed. The October issue will summarize the report, A Call to Action: Changing the Culture of Drinking at U.S. Colleges.

Helping Patients with Alcohol Problems (the updated version of The Physicians Guide to Helping Patients): The first of two evaluation stages for the revised Guide has been completed, with in-depth reviews by five health practitioners (two physicians, one physician's assistant, and one nurse practitioner). All of the practitioners said the Guide would be helpful to them, some noting that they appreciated the reminder to use the CAGE when indicated. The reviewers offered a number of comments that will help NIAAA refine the design and content. After the revisions from this round are made, the Guide will be evaluated by four additional health care practitioners before being finalized.

Nearly 100,000 copies of the poster targeting "tweens," (ages 11-13) developed by NIAAA in partnership with the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, have been disseminated. A large number of the Safe and Drug Free School Programs have requested copies for middle schools in their States.

Two NIAAA booklets,  Make a Difference: Talk to Your Child About Alcohol, and Alcohol: What You Don't Know Can Harm You, have been updated. Printed copies will be available in October.

Research Monograph #37, Alcohol Use Among American Indians and Alaska Natives:   Multiple Perspectives on a Complex Problem, has been submitted to the printers.

The publication, Alcohol Consumption and Problems in the General Population: Findings From the 1992 National Longitudinal Alcohol Epidemiology Survey, has been sent to the printers. This publication contains more than 40 journal articles based on data from the 1992 National Longitudinal Alcohol Epidemiologic Survey of the US adult population.

NIAAA prepared an article on underage drinking that will appear in the back-to-school issue of the Department of Education's newsletter, The Challenge.

Several designs and story boards for television PSAs were developed and approved by NIAAA. The selected designs were turned into "animatics" and were pretested in focus groups in Chicago, IL and Baltimore, MD. Feedback was positive and we are proceeding with casting and shooting the PSA.

Work has begun on developing a television public service announcement to be released next year. For the coming year, a number of community events are scheduled, including health fairs. Other promotional activities include cinema advertising, continuing use of the free MetroRail subway and Metro Bus advertising space, and planned placing of interior placards in 500 MetroBuses.

Dr. Dennis Twombly organized a workshop on the “Neurobiology of Alcohol and Aging." held September 10 - 11in Bethesda, Maryland. Aging is known to be associated with a variety of changes that place older individuals at special risk for alcohol-related health problems. However, the relationship between aging and alcohol action has remained largely unexplored in terms of basic neurobiology. This workshop, co-sponsored by the National Institute on Aging, convened leading experts in aging research and alcohol research, with the goal of identifying molecular, cellular, and behavioral mechanisms that govern alcohol responses in the aging brain.

Dr. Twombly organized a workshop entitled, “Presynaptic Substrates of Alcohol Action, to be held September 24 in Bethesda, Maryland. The presynaptic terminal is the source of the “message” at every cell-cell junction, yet most alcohol research has thus far focused on postsynaptic targets such as ion channels, receptor-channel complexes, and neurochemical pathways. Recent advances in presynaptic neurobiology have unveiled a broad spectrum of potential targets for alcohol. This workshop will convene leading experts on presynaptic physiology and chemistry and investigators who have conducted studies on synaptic mechanisms in relation to alcohol. Identifying alcohol-induced changes in these mechanisms will be critical for understanding how alcohol impacts neuronal excitability and communication.  

– Dr. Laurie Foudin organized and presented the introduction to a Satellite Symposium, “Experimental Therapeutics for Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.” The workshop featured six speakers who discussed mechanistic approaches to preventing ethanol’s effects on neuronal cell death.

– In the symposium on Alcohol and Liver: A Memorial for Dr. Ronald Thurman, Dr. Vishnu Purohit highlighted significant discoveries made by Dr. Thurman and his research collaborators in the area of alcoholic liver disease.

– Dr. Ellen Witt and Dr. Linda Spear, Department of Psychology, SUNY Binghamton, co-organized a Satellite Symposium entitled “Neurobiological Mechanisms of Adolescent Alcohol Abuse:  New Findings, New Directions.”

– Dr. Dennis Twombly presented a talk entitled, “The Objectives of Science Education:  Educating The Public, Educating The Scientists, or Educating The Administration?” at the workshop  entitled, "Science Education and Community Outreach." The workshop dealt with issues involved in presenting alcohol research to the lay public and school-age children, including how exhibits and exhibitions can be organized, how to create multi-institutional partnerships, and what factors encourage or discourage scientists from becoming involved in outreach activities. In addition to describing some of NIAAA’s latest outreach initiatives, Dr. Twombly showed video clips from his “Drunken Brain” exhibit. He also reviewed some of the under-appreciated benefits of public outreach projects, such as networking among scientists, recruiting of students into scientific disciplines, and forging new relationships with other institutions.

– Division Director, Dr. Samir Zakhari  co-organized and co-chaired a symposium entitled "Neuronal Stem Cells and Alcohol."