This R21 application responds to RFA DA-01-009 to seek three years of funding to gain understanding of what accounts for the effectiveness of cultural components identified in the NIDA funded Bii-Zin-Da-De-Dah (Listening to One Another) prevention trials (DA 10049). The research plan involves partnerships with three Ojibwa reservations in northern Minnesota that will work with the prevention team to specify and expand cultural content and pilot the modified program. Prevention trials of the 10-week Bii-Zin-Da-De-Dah family intervention indicated that program components that were culturally based were most likely to be retained and used by participating families. This research will return to these cultural components. Focus groups of elders on the three reservations will evaluate cultural program components and build upon them to increase the cultural relevance of the family intervention with the goal of enhancing its efficacy. Two separate pilots with Band families on the three reservations will be used to evaluate and refine the cultural components. The second goal of the proposed research is to provide a template for developing culturally specific prevention programs with other American Indian nations. This research is innovative in that it is a partnership between cultural experts and prevention researchers to focus and develop the successful culturally based elements of a tested prevention program. It is cost-effective in that it will be incorporated into an existing tribal research infrastructure consisting of advisory boards and Ojibwe personnel.
| Olausson, P; Venkitaramani, D V; Moran, T D et al. (2012) The tyrosine phosphatase STEP constrains amygdala-dependent memory formation and neuroplasticity. Neuroscience 225:1-8 |
