National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)

In a commentary published in April in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research , Raye Litten, Ph.D., and other NIAAA scientists describe the evolution of our understanding of the heterogeneity of alcohol use disorder (AUD), and outline new treatment and research regimes that follow from the recognition that alcohol problems are manifested along a continuum of severity, ranging from...

Thursday, June 5, 2008

CONTENT: A. Legislation, Budget, and Policy B. Director’s Activities C. NIAAA Staff and Organization D. Research Priority Emphasis and Core Support Teams E. NIAAA Research Programs F. Scientific Meetings G. Outreach H. Multi-Media Products from NIAAA A. Legislation, Budget, and Policy Federal Employee Health Coverage for Substance Abuse Services In the Office of Personnel Management’s annual call for benefit and...

Tuesday, May 11, 2021

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism today announces a 5-year prospective study on the role of alcohol use and abuse in determining patient outcomes for aging veterans with and without HIV infection. The study is an expansion of the ongoing Veterans Aging Cohort Study (VACS), initiated in 1999 and supported by a number of NIH components including the...

Physicians often fail to ask high school-aged patients about alcohol use and to advise young people to reduce or stop drinking, according to a study led by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health. In a random survey of more than 2,500 10th grade students with an average age of 16...

NIH-supported study finds coordinated efforts limit the impact of high-risk drinking Coordinated strategies that address alcohol availability, alcohol policy enforcement and drinking norms can help colleges and their communities protect students from the harms of high-risk drinking, according to a new study supported by the National Institutes of Health. In the Study to Prevent Alcohol Related Consequences (SPARC), researchers found...

Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna E. Shalala announces the availability of the Ninth Special Report to the U.S. Congress on Alcohol and Health, the latest in a series of triennial reports begun in 1970. The report highlights recent research on the effects of alcohol use, abuse, and dependence on individuals and society, new knowledge about the mechanisms of...

Newborns whose mothers drank alcohol heavily during pregnancy had damage to the nerves in the arms and legs, according to a study by researchers at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, one of the National Institutes of Health. The study was conducted in collaboration with researchers at the University of Chile. The nerve damage was still present...

While hand sanitizers containing 60-95% ethyl alcohol can help destroy the coronavirus on surfaces, drinking alcohol—including beverages with high percentages of alcohol—offers no protection from the virus. The concentration of alcohol in the blood after one standard drink is in the range of 0.01–0.03% (a blood alcohol level of 0.01–0.03 gm%), which is a tiny fraction of the concentration needed...

See the latest issue of our webzine at www.spectrum.niaaa.nih.gov -- featuring articles on NIAAA’s National Consortium on Alcohol and Neurodevelopment in Adolescence (NCANDA) study and NIH’s multi-Institute Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study. Also see five questions with Trish Powell, Ph.D., Associate Director for Scientific Initiatives at NIAAA, binge drinking by the numbers, a closer look at alcohol monitoring technology...

Thursday, February 7, 2008

CONTENTS A. Legislation, Budget, and Policy B. Director's Activities C. NIAAA Staff and Organization D. Research Priority Emphasis and Core Support Teams E. NIAAA Research Programs F. Scientific Meetings G. Outreach H. Multi-Media Products from NIAAA A. Legislation, Budget, and Policy Substance Abuse Insurance Parity At the end of each year, there is a sunset date for the 1996 Mental...

According to the results of a recent NIAAA-funded animal study, carrying a gene variant that affects the release of a specific brain protein may increase the risk of developing an alcohol use disorder. The protein, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), affects the survival of existing neurons and the growth of new neurons and synapses, the junctures through which cell-to-cell communication occurs...

Drinking too much – on a single occasion or over time – can take a serious toll on your health. Here’s how alcohol can affect your body: Brain: Alcohol interferes with the brain’s communication pathways, and can affect the way the brain looks and works. These disruptions can change mood and behavior, and make it harder to think clearly and...