Clinical trials and clinical mentoring involving studies of adolescents with alcohol use disorders (AUD) lag considerably behind those for adults. This proposal for a Mid-Career Investigator Award in Patient-Oriented Research describes a career plan in patient-oriented research, mentorship, and career development in the area of clinical trials involving adolescents with AUD and comorbid major depression (MDD). The applicant has previously demonstrated expertise in conducting pharmacotherapy studies involving adults with comorbid AUD/MDD. The Career Development portion of this proposed award will seek to extend the applicant's ability to optimally conduct and interpret pharmacotherapy studies to those involving adolescent AUD populations. This goal would be accomplished by strengthening the applicant's background in developmental psychopathology and specified advanced statistical techniques. This training would make the applicant a more effective mentor for trainees working with this important but understudied population. This work would also enhance the applicant's knowledge of the relationship between clinical improvements in depressive symptoms and alcohol use among comorbid AUD/MDD adolescents during treatment. The clinical study proposed in this K24 award is associated with a double-blind, placebo-controlled study involving fluoxetine in adolescents with comorbid AUD/MDD (R01 AA13370), now in its third year. Research proposed in this application seeks to extend this funded work with adolescents by elucidating the nature of the relationship between improvement both in drinking and in depressive symptoms. This award would allow the applicant to curtail various clinical, administrative, and research duties in order to focus on adolescent populations with AUD. The largest part of the career plan is the mentoring of trainees in patient-oriented research involving adolescents with AUD. This will not only benefit the applicant's educational development, but will also address the paucity of researchers in this area.
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