News Volume 14, Number 1 (April, 1999) |
By Barbara Cire, NIDA NOTES Associate Editor
The Constituent Conference is one way in which NIDA communicates with organizations concerned with drug abuse. At each annual meeting, NIDA presents its latest research findings and other information to the field, while constituent leaders voice their most pressing concerns and recommendations to the Institute. Each year, NIDA prepares a "report card" that illustrates how the Institute has acted in response to the organizations' recommendations from the preceding year. (See "NIDA's Report Card".) A new element for the 1998 conference, in response to a constituent recommendation at the 1997 conference, was the compilation of a "report card" by the constituent organizations, which also was distributed at the meeting. The report summarized each organization's activities over the past year in research dissemination, collaboration with NIDA and other organizations, and joint projects with other members of the drug abuse research and service delivery communities.
"Development and testing of new treatments for drug addiction is a major priority," Dr. Leshner continued. "Effective treatment will address the biology, behavior, and social context of drug use, resulting in a whole-body approach. We must move treatments from the laboratory to practice and determine which ones work in real-life settings. To accomplish this, NIDA will establish a national drug abuse treatment clinical trials network." (See "Clinical Trials Network Will Speed the Testing and Delivery of New Drug Abuse Therapies".)
In a concluding panel discussion, constituent group leaders noted that a key element in influencing policy and decisionmaking is translating NIDA research so that the public can understand that drug abuse is a chronic, relapsing disease. If drug addiction is presented as the disease that it is, the stigma associated with it will decrease, the panel members agreed. NIDA and its constituents must translate the research for the public so that the public will be better informed about drug abuse treatment and prevention initiatives, the panel concluded. |
NIDA NOTES - Volume 14, Number 1 |