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Bulletin Board Volume 13, Number 2 (July, 1998)

Addicted to Nicotine: A National Research Forum July 27-28, 1998 · Bethesda, Maryland

This conference is sponsored by NIDA and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and cosponsored by the National Cancer Institute and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Office on Smoking and Health. Topics will include:

• genetic, biological, behavioral, and sociocultural factors in tobacco use;

• breakthroughs in the neurobiology of nicotine addiction;

• new medications and behavioral techniques for treating nicotine addiction;

• strategies for preventing children and adolescents from using tobacco.

For more information, contact Robyn Bowie Semsker, Capital Consulting Corporation, telephone: (301) 468-6004, ext. 431; e-mail: rsemsker@md.capconcorp.com.

Child Psychopathology And Drug Abuse

Many childhood psychiatric disorders are strongly associated with subsequent substance abuse, participants at a NIDA meeting have concluded. However, a causal role remains to be established. Furthermore, because other biological and environmental influences can increase or reduce the risk of drug abuse, the mere existence of a specific psychiatric disorder does not predestine a child to later drug abuse, the meeting participants stressed.

NIDA's Division of Epidemiology and Prevention Research (DEPR) held the meeting to explore the relationship between childhood psychological disorders and drug abuse last summer in Gaithersburg, Maryland. At the meeting, which was conducted by

Dr. Meyer Glantz and Dr. Naimah Weinberg of DEPR, researchers from the psychopathology, child development, and drug abuse fields worked to develop a consensus about common features of childhood psychopathologies that may increase a person's risk for drug abuse.

Key points and possible areas for future research include:

• Conduct disorder and anxiety disorders are more clearly associated than other disorders with later drug abuse; bipolar (manic depressive) disorder may constitute a risk factor; depression in the presence of another disorder may increase risk; some subtypes of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder may also increase risk; learning disabilities and language disorders merit further study.

• The coexistence of more than one childhood psychiatric disorder greatly increases the risk for later drug abuse.

• Children with a disorder that is less common among members of their gender - for example, girls with conduct disorder or boys with depression - are at greater risk for drug abuse.

NIDA is soliciting further research on the relationship between childhood psychopathology and drug abuse through an emphasis statement published in the January 16, 1998, NIH Guide, which can be obtained from NIH's World Wide Web site at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/1998/. This emphasis statement amends NIDA's Program Announcement on Research on Origins and Pathways to Drug Abuse (PA #97-043), which is available on NIDA's home page on the World Wide Web at http://www.nida.nih.gov under "Funding." NIDA's Origins and Pathways Workgroup also is planning a meeting to examine whether mental health interventions for children with psychopathologic conditions alter the risks of later drug abuse. A summary of the meeting on Child Psychopathology Risk Factors for Drug Abuse: Features and Mechanisms (NCADI publication #SUM-1) can be obtained from the National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information, P.O. Box 2345, Rockville, MD 20847, (800) 729-6686. The meeting summary also can be found on NIDA's home page on the World Wide Web under "Scientific Meeting Dates and Summaries."

Dr. Frascella Heads NIDA's Etiology and Clinical Neurobiology Branch

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