News Advisory
Addressing Substance Abuse and Comorbidities among Military Personnel, Veterans, and Their Families: A Research Agenda
There is growing concern that military personnel
returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are experiencing a range
of difficulties, including traumatic brain injury (TBI),
post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety,
and alcohol and drug abuse. |
What: |
The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA),
part of the National Institutes of Health, will convene a
two-day meeting to address the issue of substance abuse and
associated mental health problems among military personnel
and their families, and will produce recommendations for
new research directions and priorities. |
Why: |
The goals of the
meeting are:
Gain an understanding of the intervention needs of military
personnel, veterans, and their families regarding substance
abuse and associated difficulties;
Discuss current prevention
and treatment approaches being used with these populations
and their evidence base;
Review existing efficacious prevention interventions and
drug abuse treatments that may be appropriate for adapting
and testing within military and veteran populations and
their families;
Understand how to successfully conduct research in military
and veteran settings; and
Formulate a research agenda for conducting addictions
prevention and treatment research with military and veteran
populations and their families. |
When: |
January 6-7, 2009 |
Where: |
The meeting will take place at the Hyatt Regency
Hotel, Bethesda, Maryland. |
More Information |
A full agenda and speaker list is available
at: http://www.sei2003.com/NIDA/1014036/index.htm |
To register for the press briefing, please contact Dorie Hightower
or Ann Benner in the NCI Press Office at 301-496-6641 or at ncipressofficers@mail.nih.gov.
Sponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), the
meeting is organized in collaboration with the U.S. Army Medical
Research and Material Command, the Department of Defense Health
Affairs, the Army Center for Substance Abuse Programs, the Department
of Veteran Affairs, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH),
the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA),
the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), and the
National Cancer Institute (NCI).
The National Institute on Drug Abuse is a component of the National
Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
NIDA supports most of the world’s research on the health
aspects of drug abuse and addiction. The Institute carries out
a large variety of programs to inform policy and improve practice.
Fact sheets on the health effects of drugs of abuse and information
on NIDA research and other activities can be found on the NIDA
home page at www.drugabuse.gov.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) — The Nation's
Medical Research Agency — includes 27 Institutes and
Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting
and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research,
and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both
common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and
its programs, visit www.nih.gov. |