Topic “Substance abuse”

Substance abuse has come to refer to the overindulgence in and dependence of a drug or other chemical leading to effects that are detrimental to the individual's physical and mental health, or the welfare of others. The disorder is characterized by a pattern of continued pathological use of a medication, non-medically indicated drug or toxin, that results in repeated adverse social consequences related to drug use, such as failure to meet work, family, or school obligations, interpersonal conflicts, or legal problems. There are on-going debates as to the exact distinctions between substance abuse and substance dependence, but current practice standard distinguishes between the two by defining substance dependence in terms of physiological and behavioral symptoms of substance use, and substance abuse in terms of the social consequences of substance use. Substance abuse may lead to addiction or substance dependence. Medically, physiologic dependence requires the development of tolerance leading to withdrawal symptoms. Both abuse and dependence are distinct from addiction which involves a compulsion to continue using the substance despite the negative consequences, and may or may not involve chemical dependency. Dependence almost always implies abuse, but abuse frequently occurs without dependence, particularly when an individual first begins to abuse a substance. Dependence involves physiological processes while substance abuse reflects a complex interaction between the individual, the abused substance and society.
Overview

The UCLA Integrated Substance Abuse Programs (ISAP) is organizationally located within the Semel Institute, a division of the UCLA Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. Because of the complex nature of drug abuse, training in this field combines substantive, methodological, and practical approaches to research. 

The Institutional Training Grant (ITG) Program is a NIDA funded program to provide training to predoctoral and postdoctoral fellows. The grant provides a modest stipend to each trainee, depending on the length of time from your degree.

We employ a multi-disciplinary training program. Cross-disciplinary knowledge is needed to understand drug abuse etiology, behavior, consequences, and treatment. Substantive topics range from psychopharmacology to the social consequences of drug legislation. The variety of research approaches applicable to an understanding of drug abuse include experimental, quasi-experimental, survey, and naturalistic or ethnographic methods. Further, the unique nature of drug abuse data frequently requires new and creative analytic approaches such as specialized methods for analyzing non-normal data, quantifying data collected through qualitative methods, or merging qualitative and quantitative data. Other requirements include working with large databases and collecting data from drug-dependent populations.

Conducting drug abuse research also requires attention to the practical problems of carrying out a study, such as dealing with issues of confidentiality and ethics, and working with federal, state, and local agencies. Investigators must be prepared for and know how to deal with the compromises that must frequently be made between the requirements of an "ideal" research design and the constraints and difficulties imposed by programs and people in the real world. Furthermore, because of the complexities inherent in this type of research, researchers need to learn up-to-date computer methods of statistical analysis to enhance their own efficiency and make costly data more readily available. Finally, researchers need to develop competent writing and communication skills to disseminate research results effectively.

Each fellow is responsible for his or her own training experience, both in terms of process and outcomes, and is expected to be a self-motivated, adult learner. A wide variety of research training resources are available at ISAP and the larger UCLA community; it is anticipated that fellows will actively seek out and utilize these resources according to individual need and interest. To this end, research training activities may vary widely among fellows reflecting different levels of expertise and experience in drug abuse research methods, and specific areas of interest. Although certain coursework and evaluative components of the training program are relatively fixed, the individual trainee is encouraged to structure his or her research training experience in ways consistent with professional development and career goals. 

Center for Addictive Behaviors

Aim to discover fundamental mechanisms that link addictive disorders and their behaviors with neurochemical phenotype and genotype i

Our mission is to discover fundamental mechanisms that link addictive disorders (drug abuse and smoking) and their behaviors with neurochemical phenotype and genotype in healthy individuals and in those who suffer from neuropsychiatric diseases. The Center’s work focuses along 2 major lines:

  • Research on the biological basis of addictive disorders
  • Development of new probes for noninvasive imaging, including methods to visualize gene expression.

 

Spread among the West Los Angeles Veteran’s Administration, the UCLA Semel Institute & Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital, and the Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center, the Center for Addictive Behaviors (CAB), utilizes cutting-edge noninvasive in vivo imaging techniques in its research. With 2 separate cyclotrons, a positron emission tomograph (PET) and microPET scanner, and a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner at its disposal, our group remains at the forefront of drug addiction behavioral research.

In addition to our research, the center delivers a variety of courses in drug addiction and abuse, including training in transaltional research on drug abuse.

 

Director: 
Edythe London

Integrated Substance Abuse Programs

Advance the knowledge base on drug problems and to improve the delivery of drug abuse treatment services through an array of projects

The UCLA Integrated Substance Abuse Programs (ISAP) was established in 1999 to consolidate research efforts in many areas of drug abuse research at UCLA. Since then, ISAP has steadily established its presence as a major entity in the drug abuse research community, both domestically and internationally.

The group continues to advance the knowledge base on drug problems and to improve the delivery of drug abuse treatment services through an array of projects.

Looking for treatment? Visit the Matrix Institute Web site for more information on treatment services or call 1-800-310-7700. Other questions? E-mail our External Communications Director at isap@ucla.edu.

Director: 
Walter Ling