Kirk J. Brower, M.D., an associate professor of psychiatry with tenure at the University of Michigan (UM) Medical School, is applying for the Midcareer Investigator Award in Patient-Oriented Research. The UM Department of Psychiatry provides a rich environment for alcohol research, including a large base of NIH funding and an established Alcohol Research Center that is currently engaged in multiple clinical studies. Dr. Brower, broad-certified in addiction psychiatry, is Executive Director of Chelsea Arbor Treatment Center, the dedicated facility in the Department that exclusively treats people with alcohol and other drug problems. He is also the director of the ACGME-accredited fellowship program in addiction psychiatry at UM and co-principal investigator on the Department s NIAAA T32 Training Grant for postdoctoral research fellows. He mentors this year s competitively selected (one per year) ACNP Glaxo Wellcome Research Fellow in Clinical Neuropharmacology. Dr. Brower s long-term career goals are to develop and disseminate new therapeutic options for patients with alcoholism and alcohol abuse who are likely to relapse despite current or conventional treatments. Comorbid insomnia, craving, and mood disturbances are targeted because they may increase relapse risk via neurobiological mechanisms that are amenable to pharmacotherapy. Dr. Brower s short-term career goals are to increase his expertise in sleep medicine, sleep research, and pharmacotherapy trials. His career development plan includes advanced coursework in clinical research design and biostatistics, focused activity in sleep medicine at the University of Michigan, and special leave to visit other institutions where exemplary sleep research and/or state-of-the-art pharmacotherapy trials for alcoholism are being conducted. Dr. Brower has current research funding from Pfizer, Inc. to study the effects of sertraline on the sleep of depressed alcoholics. The proposed research project is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial gabapentin for treating alcoholism and comorbid insomnia. This 6-week trial with an additional 6-week follow-up period will investigate the effects of medication on both sleep and drinking outcomes, and it will utilize polysomnographic measures as potential neurophysiological predictors of treatment outcome. Given the high prevalence, costs and comorbidity of alcoholism and insomnia, this topic requires considerably more research attention than it has received.
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