Staff Report
Having been named as a nationwide site linked in a Clinical Trials Network designed to improve community-based treatment of drug abuse and dependence, UNM will take part in generating new treatment concepts that will eventually be implemented in the area of drug abuse.
The National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network was established by the National Institute on Drug Abuse to address the problem of new drug addiction treatments being available only in specialized research settings and to restricted patient populations.
"This is an exciting opportunity for New Mexico," said Dr. William Miller, program director and distinguished professor of Psychology and Psychiatry in a press release. "We will be testing state-of-the-art treatment methods right in the front-line clinics where ultimately they will have to be applied."
The five-year contract coupled with the award came with start-up funding grant of over $1.7 million, with an estimated $10 million more to come.
The grant funds a partnership between the Clinical Research Branch of UNM's Center on Alcoholism, Substance Abuse and Addictions (CASAA) and seven community treatment programs in Albuquerque, Espanola, Gallup and Santa Fe. Together, they will form the "Southwest Node" of the national collaboration, which currently has sites in 14 other states.
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"This is exactly the kind of new initiative envisioned in UNM's Strategic Plan," said UNM Provost Brian Foster in a press release. "It's interdisciplinary, and involves our partnering with community programs around the state to improve the health of New Mexicans."
Foster said that the innovative program will help build on a longstanding area of strength at UNM, and will bring in new funding that will help it accomplish its goals in a variety of fields.
According to its Web site, the mission of the Clinical Trials Network is to conduct studies of behavioral and pharmacological, as well as the integrated behavioral interventions of therapeutic effect in rigorous, multi-site clinical trials to determine the effectiveness across a broad range of community-based treatment settings and diversified patient populations.
The ultimate goal of the program is to transfer the results derived through the collaborative studies to physicians, providers and their patients to improve the quality of drug abuse treatment throughout the country.
"A unique aspect of this program is that it is a two-way collaboration," said Carol Luna-Anderson, executive director of The Life Link, one of the Southwest Node's sites in Santa Fe in a press release. "It not only brings the best science into our communities, but the treatment programs themselves have direct input into what research is needed and done at a national level."
The Clinical Trials Network, now in its third year of operation, is already using treatment methods previously developed and tested at CASAA.
These include a counseling motivational interviewing method introduced by Dr. Miller to strengthen people's commitment to change.
Dr. Michael Bogenschultz, associate professor and vice chair for Addiction Services in the Department of Psychiatry at UNM's School of Medicine and co-director for the Southwest Node, said that the department will bring special expertise and insight in the practice of pharmacotherapies - the use of medications in detoxification and treatment ofsubstance use disorders.
"Two things make this program unique," said Bogunschultz in a press release. "The opportunity to do high quality research in real world settings, and to disseminate state-of-the-art treatments to well-trained clinicians."
