This application is for a """"""""Mentored Research Scientist Development Award"""""""" (K01). The candidate, Robert Leeman, Ph.D., has a programmatic interest in high-risk alcohol use and difficulties with self-control, with a particular interest in the young adult population. Dr. Leeman aims, as a junior faculty member at Yale, to acquire skills to develop into an independent scientist in the field of alcohol research. The training and research plan enlists the mentorship and collaboration of Stephanie O'Malley, Ph.D., Professor of Psychiatry, the Director of the Division of Substance Abuse Research and the Clinical Core of the Yale Center for the Translational Neuroscience of Alcoholism (CTNA) and Marc Potenza, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor of Psychiatry and the Child Study Center and Director of the Yale Program for Research on Impulsivity and Impulse Control Disorders. The mentors-along with consultants, all of whom have international reputations in their fields-will assist Dr. Leeman in accomplishing his training goals, in completing the projects detailed in the research plan and in his progression toward becoming an independent researcher. Dr. Leeman's primary training goals for the K01 are 1) to enhance his skills in conducting alcohol administration research and 2) to develop specialized skills in data analytic techniques to model latent variables and to analyze prospective data. A secondary training goal is to learn more about the neurocircuitry implicated in trait and alcohol-induced disinhibition as well as the long-term alterations of neurocircuitry that typify alcoholism. The Research Plan consists of three interrelated studies that relate to Dr. Leeman's interests in alcohol use and self-control and will allow him to apply knowledge gained from the training proposed in the award: 1) testing structural equation models to assess associations among trait disinhibition, expectancies of alcohol's disinhibiting effects and impaired control over alcohol use and to assess these constructs as cross-sectional predictors of high-risk drinking;2) a secondary data analysis to test disinhibition expectancies and impaired control over alcohol use as mediators of outcome in a clinical trial of naltrexone and BASICS counseling for heavy drinking reduction in young adults and 3) development and validation of a human alcohol self-administration paradigm designed to model impaired control over alcohol use. The proposed alcohol self-administration paradigm entails provision of disincentives for non-moderate alcohol use that disregards a controlled drinking guideline. The proposed research has the potential to inform our understanding of the ways in which various difficulties with self-control contribute to high-risk drinking. Results from the proposed research will provide preliminary data for an R01 application to be completed by Dr. Leeman during the award period. Completion of the proposed training and research would allow him to transition to independence as an investigator by the completion of this award and lay the groundwork for his long-term career goals.
Young adult heavy drinking is a significant public health concern. The candidate for this award requests training and proposes a research plan to progress toward independence as an investigator with focus on risk factors for and mechanisms underlying heavy drinking and alcohol-related problems in young adults. Knowledge about risk factors and underlying mechanisms can inform intervention approaches to reduce heavy drinking and alcohol-related problems in this population.
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