National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)

A genetic variant of a receptor in the brain’s reward circuitry plays an important role in determining whether the neurotransmitter dopamine is released in the brain following alcohol intake, according to a study led by researchers at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health. Dopamine is involved in transmitting the euphoria...

Inherited variations in the amount of an innate anxiety-reducing molecule help explain why some people can withstand stress better than others, according to a new study led by researchers at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). “Stress response is an important variable in vulnerability to alcohol dependence and other...

October 18, 2019

Scientists have been developing astounding new tools for exploring neural circuits that underlie brain function throughout the first five years of the National Institutes of Health’s Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies ® (BRAIN) Initiative . Now, the NIH has announced its continued support for these projects by funding over 180 new BRAIN Initiative awards, bringing the total 2019 budget...

March 23, 2016

The Research Society on Alcoholism (RSA) has announced that Lorenzo Leggio, M.D., Ph.D., M.Sc., will receive the 2016 Early Career Investigator Award. Dr. Leggio is Chief of the Section on Clinical Psychoneuroendocrinology and Neuropsychopharmacology (CPN), a joint laboratory of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). RSA presents this award...

Breanne Wilhite Post Baccalaureate Intramural Research Training Award Recipient Bree.wilhite@nih.gov Breanne Wilhite is a current Postbac IRTA in the Laboratory of Membrane Biochemistry and Biophysics. Her main duties include working on the protocol Dietary linoleic acid regulation of omega-3 HUFA metabolism; satiety and body composition among overweight female subjects. This trial will be investigating the effects of controlled dietary alterations...

September 1, 2015

Every day, resilient Americans with substance use disorders summon extraordinary courage and strength and commit to living healthy and productive lives through recovery. From big cities to small towns to Indian Country, substance use disorders affect the lives of millions of Americans. This month, we reaffirm our unwavering commitment to all those who are seeking or in need of treatment...

September 25, 2017

The purpose of this notice is to inform NIH grant applicants, their mentors, and grant management officials about two online video briefings the NIH Center for Scientific Review (CSR) will host in October 2017. CSR is the portal for NIH grant applications and their review for scientific and technical merit. Each Briefing Will Have a Different Focus Getting Academic Research...

Girls who suffered childhood sexual abuse are more likely to develop alcoholism later in life if they possess a particular variant of a gene involved in the body’s response to stress, according to a new study led by researchers at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The new finding...

Two experimental compounds prevent one of the cellular events that is a likely contributor to fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), according to a new study supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). A report of the study, by scientists at Harvard Medical School and the National Institute on Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), appears in the...

Mon, 02/13/2017 - 12:00

Mon, 02/13/2017 - 12:00

Liver fibrosis is a consequence of chronic liver injury associated with alcoholic or nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, viral hepatitis, or metabolic diseases, and can lead to cirrhosis and even cancer. While there are no effective treatments for liver fibrosis, previous research has shown that compounds that block receptors for molecules similar to those found in the marijuana plant (endocannabinoids) can...

July 12, 2019

Dr. Paule V. Joseph has been selected as a Lasker Clinical Research Scholar at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This highly competitive program provides talented, early-stage researchers the opportunity to carry out independent clinical and translational research for five to seven years at NIH. The researchers also have the possibility of additional years of financial support, at NIH or...

Fri, 03/14/2014 - 12:00

Fri, 03/14/2014 - 12:00

Alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana are the substances American adolescents use the most. A recent study led by researchers at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism examined how adolescents’ substance use patterns are associated with substance use disorders in young adulthood. Their findings, published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence in March 2014, show that adolescents who drink alcohol and...

Xin Jin, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health, received the Peter and Patricia Gruber International Research Award from the Society for Neuroscience today during the society’s annual meeting in Washington, D.C. The $25,000 prize is awarded annually to two young scientists whose research includes significant...

Wenxing Zha, Ph.D.; Abbas Parsian, Ph.D. Reissuance of PA-17-467(R01), PA-17-468(R03) Purpose The purpose of this Notice of Special Interest (NOSI) is to solicit applications to support the secondary analyses of existing data sets with the goal of enhancing our understanding of the following: 1) the patterns and trajectories of alcohol consumption, and 2) the epidemiology and etiology, including genetics, of...

Selectively bred strains of laboratory rats that either prefer or avoid alcohol have been a mainstay of alcohol research for decades. So-called alcohol-preferring rats voluntarily consume much greater amounts of alcohol than do non-preferring rats. Scientists at the National Institutes of Health now report that a specific gene plays an important role in the alcohol-consuming tendencies of both types of...

June 30, 2016

In recognition of his contribution to the development of scientific collaborations between France and the United States, George F. Koob, Ph.D., director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health, has received the insignia of Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur (Knight of the Legion of Honor) from the government of France...

In recognition of his contribution to the development of scientific collaborations between France and the United States, George F. Koob, Ph.D., director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health, has received the insignia of Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur (Knight of the Legion of Honor) from the government of France...

Background: Scientists at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) led by CAPT Joseph R. Hibbeln, M.D., teamed with researchers at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS) in Bethesda, Md., to analyze a sample of suicide deaths among U.S. military personnel on active duty between 2002 and 2008. The researchers compared levels of omega-3 fatty...

Scientists tracking the progress of children diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) as they became teenagers have shed new light on the link between ADHD and the risk of developing alcohol and substance use problems. The researchers found that individuals with severe problems of inattention as children were more likely than their peers to report alcohol-related problems, a greater frequency of...

An experimental compound appears to improve metabolic abnormalities associated with obesity, according to a preliminary study led by researchers at the National Institutes of Health. A report of the study, which was conducted with obese mice, appears online today in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. “This is a promising early step toward a treatment for some of the serious health...