2005 U.S.-NETHERLANDS WORKSHOP ON BI-NATIONAL RESEARCH COLLABORATION ON DRUG ABUSE AND ADDICTION

Wyndham Baltimore - Inner Harbor
101 West Fayette Street
Baltimore, Maryland USA

May 19-20, 2005

Executive Summary

As the first joint research teams are publishing their results and the second group of scientists are completing their projects, representatives from NIDA and the Dutch Addiction Program (DAP) met May 19-20, 2005, in Baltimore, Maryland, to consider applications for new funding and assess the status of the unique binational agreement between NIDA, The Netherlands Health Research and Development Council (ZONMw), and The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). Funding decisions are pending on the research proposals presented by the binational applicant teams. The meeting was co-chaired by NIDA International Program Director Dr. Steven Gust and Drs. Jan van Ree and Nick Ramsey, University of Utrecht. During the meeting, participants toured the NIDA Intramural Research Program and met with scientists at Johns Hopkins University. In addition, Dr. Dirk Ruwaard, Counselor for Health, Welfare and Sport, Royal Netherlands Embassy, briefed participants on agreements between the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy, and the Netherlands Ministry of Health to collaborate on drug abuse issues, including supply- and demand-reduction.

By linking independent teams of researchers with their colleagues from the other country, NIDA and DAP help researchers advance scientific understanding about drug abuse and addiction. For example, one of the first binational projects funded in 2001 under this agreement has helped narrow the search for specific genes linked to nicotine dependence (Pharmacogenomics Journal, 2004, 4, 345-346.) Dr. Geoffrey Hunt, Institute for Scientific Analysis, described how research teams examining the international youth dance club scene in Rotterdam, San Francisco and Hong Kong adopted a global perspective in their research, integrating qualitative and quantitative methods to adapt to differing customs and developing culturally appropriate prevention and intervention strategies. Research teams at the University of Southern California (USC) and the University of Maastricht are comparing the power of independently developed measures of implicit cognition to predict substance abuse in high-risk adolescents. Dr. Susan Ames, USC, outlined the research results and their impact on scientific understanding of assessment, theory, and intervention feasibility.

Leading researchers from each country conduct productive collaborative research by sharing data available in only one of the two countries, assembling teams with complimentary skills, and investigating new research topics. For example, the genetic studies of opioid receptors and addiction discussed by Dr. K. Stephen LaForge, Rockefeller University, and Dr. Jan van Ree, Rudolf Magnus Institute of Neuroscience, rely on data from Dutch twin studies that would be too expensive to duplicate in the United States and on Dutch studies of medically prescribed heroin to treat addiction, a practice not permitted in the United States. Among the newly proposed collaborations, Dr. Nick Ramsey, the Utrecht Medical Center specialist in fMRI, and his partner Dr. Robert Block, the University of Iowa specialist in PET and cognitive testing of marijuana users, proposed combining their expertise in different types of neuroimaging to assess the effects of marijuana use on adolescent brain development. Dr. Timothy Wilens, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Dr. Geurt van der Glind, Trimbos-Instituut, proposed expanding their work on an emerging research topic: the connection between ADHD and substance abuse. Only a few articles have been published in this emerging area, yet the preliminary results suggest that ADHD treatment produces a statistically significant decrease in the risk of future substance abuse. In addition to conducting a randomized clinical trial of multidimensional family therapy to address adolescent cannabis use, Dr. Howard A. Liddle, University of Miami, and Dr. Henk Rigter, Erasmus Medical Center, proposed a study that would expand training activities and increase understanding of the transportability of scientific research. Dr. Hans Boutellier, Verwey-Jonker Instituut, and Dr. David Hawkins, University of Washington, proposed comparing the effectiveness of community-based or institutionalized introduction of a system to evaluate and select empirically proven prevention interventions. Dr. John E. Lochman, University of Alabama, and Dr. Walter Matthys, University of Utrecht, proposed expanding their studies of an intervention improving decision-making skills to prevent drug abuse.

The NIDA-DAP binational agreement promotes cooperation on drug abuse and addiction research. U.S. and Dutch scientists study aspects of drug abuse not available in their own countries and examine the effect of national differences in such areas as policies, drug-using populations, abused drugs, patterns of abuse, special populations, prevention programs, and treatment protocols. The joint scientific reviews conducted by the separate U.S. and Dutch funding agencies ensure that each binational research project meets the individual nations’ research criteria and priorities; the joint funding permits NIDA, ZONMw, and NWO to expand the impact of their scarce financial resources. In short, the NIDA agreement with ZONMw and NWO is unique, successful, and a model for future binational drug abuse research activities.