National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)

Description The COMBINE Study is the largest pharmacotherapy trial conducted for Alcohol Use Disorder in the United States. This clinical trial evaluated the efficacy of naltrexone and acamprosate, both alone and in combination, in the context of medical management with and without Combined Behavioral Intervention (CBI). Study Details Sponsor: The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism NCT #: 00006206...

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) frequently occurs with other mental health disorders, and vice versa. Primary care providers and other clinicians are well positioned to identify these conditions, make informed clinical decisions, and refer patients to specialists, thereby improving treatment outcomes.

NIAAA will continue to support epidemiological research to identify and track patterns of alcohol use and misuse, drinking-related outcomes and disparities, and individual and environmental variables that confer risk or resilience.

Wednesday, May 10, 2023

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services National Institutes of Health Minutes of the 11th Joint Meeting of the National Advisory Council on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Advisory Council on Drug Abuse, and National Cancer Advisory Board May 10, 2023 Members of the National Advisory Council on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), National Advisory Council on Drug Abuse (NIDA)...

April 23-24, 1998 • Ramada Inn • Bethesda, Maryland Abstracts Activities of the Center for Addiction Research and Education Michael F. Fleming, M.D., M.P.H. From the Department of Family Medicine, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin The University of Wisconsin Center for Addiction Research and Education (CARE) has a number of projects that focus on the prevention of alcohol problems in...

April 23-24, 1998 • Ramada Inn • Bethesda, Maryland Abstracts The Seattle Pregnancy and Health Program: A Demonstration Grant to Prevent Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and Intervene in Female Alcohol Abuse During Pregnancy Ruth E. Little, Sc.D., Ann P. Streissguth, Ph.D., and Gay M. Guzinski, M.D. From the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology...

Heavy drinking during pregnancy disrupts proper brain development in children and adolescents years after they were exposed to alcohol in the womb, according to a study supported by the National Institutes of Health. The study is the first to track children over several years to examine how heavy exposure to alcohol in utero affects brain growth over time. Using magnetic...

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...

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...

Promising results from a randomized, controlled clinical trial of the medication The generic anticonvulsant medication gabapentin shows promise as an effective treatment for alcohol dependence, based on the results of a 150-patient clinical trial of the medication. Conducted by scientists supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health, the study...

Researchers have identified a genetic factor that appears to influence anxiety in women. Combining DNA analysis, recordings of brain activity, and psychological tests, investigators at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) found that Caucasian and American Indian women with the same gene variant had similarly high scores on tests that measure anxiety. These women also had similar...

Researchers at the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center, University of California-San Francisco, report in the June 14 issue of Cell that the brain chemical messenger dopamine and ethanol (beverage alcohol) act through independent mechanisms to synergistically produce a common cellular response that sustains voluntary alcohol consumption. The work may provide an additional target for pharmacologic treatment of alcoholism. "Today's...

A team of alcohol researchers led by Jack Stapleton, M.D., of the Department of Internal Medicine, University of Iowa College of Medicine and the Iowa City Veterans Affairs Medical Center, report in the September 6 New England Journal of Medicine , Volume 345, 2001 ( Effect of co-infection with GB virus type C (Hepatitis G Virus) on survival of HIV-infected...

Viewing pictures of alcoholic beverages activates the prefrontal cortex and the anterior thalamus in alcoholics but not in moderate drinkers, report Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) researchers in the April Archives of General Psychiatry. The research team is the first to use fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) to examine whether alcohol cues stimulate specific brain regions. "The activated brain...

A study reported in the October issue of Gastroenterology (Volume 177, pages 1-12) shows that tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), a pro-inflammatory protein, plays an important role in the development of early liver damage associated with alcohol consumption. Researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) found that wild-type mice fed alcohol continuously over four weeks exhibited liver...

A study in the current Archives of General Psychiatry (Volume 56, pages 719-724) shows that nalmefene, an opioid antagonist that is not now commercially available in the oral form studied, is effective in preventing relapse to heavy drinking in alcohol dependent individuals. Barbara J. Mason, Ph.D., and colleagues at the University of Miami School of Medicine found from a 12-week...

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism today released the first report from its National Longitudinal Alcohol Epidemiologic Survey (NLAES), including the most precise estimates to date of alcohol abuse and dependence among U.S. adults. The figures are reported by Bridget F. Grant, Ph.D., Ph.D., and colleagues in the current issue (Vol. 18, No. 3) of Alcohol Health &...

Mon, 01/31/2011 - 12:00

Mon, 01/31/2011 - 12:00

Brain circuits that connect the frontal lobes with the cerebellum are damaged in chronic alcoholics and may contribute to cognitive deficits in these individuals. But whether these “frontocerebellar” abnormalities are present in individuals at high risk for alcoholism before they start using alcohol is unknown. To find out, scientists led by Dr. Megan Herting at the Oregon Health and Science...

First prize winner will be awarded $200,000 In the search for a wearable or otherwise discreet device capable of measuring blood alcohol levels in real time, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) has issued the Wearable Alcohol Biosensor Challenge. The wearable biosensor will aid researchers, clinicians, therapists and individuals by providing more accurate data on how much...

$200,000 first prize awarded to BACtrack Skyn Today the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism announced the winners of its Wearable Alcohol Biosensor Challenge, a competition to design a discreet device capable of measuring blood alcohol levels in near real-time. The winning prototype and recipient of the $200,000 first prize was submitted by BACtrack, a company known nationally for...