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For more information, contact Michelle Muth at 301-443-6245
RESEARCH NEWS
Incentive to Work Helps to Keep Addicts Drug Free
An experimental program in Baltimore, Maryland, has been successful in helping
drug-abusing women stay free of drugs by paying them a salary to attend a work/training
program.
In the Therapeutic Workplace, patients are hired and paid to work. To link salary to drug
abstinence, patients are required to provide drug-free urine samples to gain daily access
to the workplace. In the workplace, patients are paid either to perform assigned jobs or
to participate in training to learn how to do those jobs.
Dr. Alan I. Leshner, NIDA director, says "This project brings into the real world the results
of many years of previous research that demonstrate that reward-based treatment programs
do result in decreased drug use. The barrier to general applicability of these treatment
programs has been that practical funding mechanisms have not been available to sustain
them. This program may provide a model solution to that problem."
Each day, when a participant reported to the workplace, she was required to provide a
urine sample. If the sample was drug free, she was allowed to work that day. After completing
a 3-hour work shift, she received a basic pay voucher. Patients could earn additional vouchers
for appropriate professional demeanor, for meeting daily learning goals, and for data entry
productivity.
Participation in the workplace program nearly doubled the patients' abstinence from
opiates and cocaine, as determined by urine samples collected 3 times a week during
the six-month study period. Over the course of the program, 59 percent of the urine samples
from the workplace women were drug-free, compared to 33 percent of the samples from
the control group women. Forty percent of the Therapeutic Workplace participants had
drug-free urine samples on at least 75 percent of testing occasions; in contrast, only
10 percent of the control participants did so.
- WHAT IT MEANS: This study provides some support for the notion that salary
for work can be used to reinforce drug abstinence.
The study, led by Dr. Kenneth Silverman, appears in the February 2001 issue of
Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology.
NIDA NEWS
NIDA Premieres New Web Site
NIDA has redesigned its Web site (www.drugabuse.gov) to make it more user-friendly and
informative. The site has been organized so that audience-specific information is easier
to find. The site has been restructured into four basic components:
HEADLINES - a guide to the new web site, a flash movie on NIDA's mission, and video
and audio Public Service Announcements (PSAs) from NIDA's new Keep Your Brain
Healthy campaign;
INFORMATION FOR RESEARCHERS AND HEALTH PROFESSIONALS - information
on grants and funding, meetings, trends and statistics, treatment and prevention
research, the Clinical Trials Network, and a NIDA NOTES index;
INFORMATION FOR PARENTS AND TEACHERS - information on specific drugs of abuse,
NIDA NOTES, Research Reports, Infofax, and the NIDA science education program;
INFORMATION FOR STUDENTS - information on drugs of abuse, including marijuana; Mind Over Matter;
Sara's Quest; and NIDA Goes to School.
The animated movie that outlines NIDA's mission is a precursor to other interactive features that soon
will be added to the site. In addition, many of the publications, fact sheets, and other materials on the
new web site are downloadable.
NIDA press advisories and other media materials are posted on the Web site as they are released,
and past advisories are archived.
NIDA Announces RFA for Tools to Generate Genetically-Altered Mice
NIDA, in cooperation with other institutes at the National Institutes of Health, has issued a Request for
Applications (RFA) soliciting proposals to develop tools and techniques for the establishment of random
and targeted sequence-tagged insertion libraries of embryonic stem (ES) cells that can be used to generate
mutant mice in which the expression of the tagged gene could be controlled. The development of such a
resource for wide distribution to the scientific community would make it possible to scan the sequence
database for any gene of interest and order the corresponding targeted ES cell line.
This RFA invites grant applications for Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology
Transfer (SBIR/STTR) projects.
Letters of intent to submit an application are due by March 11, 2001.
For more information, or to obtain a copy of the RFA, call Dr. Rebekah S. Rasooly at 301-443-6300
or Dr. Cathrine Sasek at 301-443-6071.
UPCOMING EVENTS
- April 4, 2001: Fifth Annual PRISM Awards, 6:30 p.m., CBS Studios, Los Angeles, CA
- April 10, 2001: Prescription Drugs: Misuse, Abuse, and Addiction, 10 a.m., Holeman Lounge,
National Press Club, Washington, D.C.
- May 29, 2001: Bridging Neurobiological, Behavioral, and Prevention Sciences, Omni Shoreham Hotel,
Washington, D.C.
- July 19-20, 2001: Advances in MDMA (Ecstasy) Research, William H. Natcher Conference Center,
NIH Campus, Bethesda, MD
- August 9-10, 2001: National Conference on Drug Abuse Prevention, Omni Shoreham Hotel, Washington, D.C.
- September 24-26 2001: National Conference on Health Disparities Among Racial and Ethnic Groups,
Wyndham Franklin Plaza Hotel, Philadelphia, PA
Watch upcoming issues of NewsScan for more information on these events, or call NIDA at 301-443-6245.
For more information about any item in this NewsScan:
- Reporters, call Michelle Muth at 301-443-6245.
- Congressional staffers, call Mary Mayhew at 301-443-6071.
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 more than 85 percent of the world's research on the health aspects
of drug abuse and addiction. The Institute carries out a large variety of programs to ensure the rapid dissemination
of research information and its implementation in policy and practice. Fact sheets on the health effects of drugs
of abuse and other topics can be ordered free of charge in English and Spanish by calling NIDA Infofax at
1-888-NIH-NIDA (644-6432) or 1-888-TTY-NIDA (889-6432) for the deaf. These fact sheets and further information
on NIDA research and other activities can be found on the NIDA home page at http://www.drugabuse.gov.
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