This is an application for an ADAMHA RSDA (Level 1). While the candidate has published experimental work and obtained research funding, a full clinical load as a staff physician and little formal training in research techniques have hampered his development as a research scientist. This RSDA will help the candidate become a full-time researcher by relieving him of his clinical duties and providing research training and experience.
The specific aim of the RSDA will be to provide the candidate with a working knowledge of a variety of methodologies and concepts applicable to research on smoking as a dependence process. The main site for the training and research experience will be the Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology at the University of Minnesota. Both departments have several investigators in drug dependence and have a long history of research in the area. The sponsor will be Roy W. Pickens, Ph.D., a Professor in both departments who has extensive experience in training and research in drug dependence. The training will consist of 1) didactic course work, primarily in behavioral pharmacology, drug abuse and tactics of scientific research, 2) collaboration with faculty in ongoing research projects and 3) participation in the existing NIDA training program in drug dependence. In addition, off-site training will occur at the NIDA Addiction Research Center (supervised by Jack Henningfield, Ph.D.) and the Addiction Research Unit of the Institute of Psychiatry in London (supervised by M.A.H. Russell, M.D.). The research experience will consist of participation in 17 studies in 4 areas in which the candidate has aleady begun working: 1) nicotine self-administration, 2) measurement of smoking behavior, 3) tobacco withdrawal, and 4) use of nicotine gum in smokers. With these studies, the candidate will learn a variety of research strategies (from laboratory psychophysiology to clinical studies in physicians' offices). Most of the studies (14 of 17) will be funded from 5 existing NIDA and NCI grants. Evaluation of the RSDA will be by a team of local advisors. In addition, an established investigator will visit the institution annually to review the career development of the candidate. This RSDA will provide the time, training and research experience necessary for the candidate to develop a full-time research career in smoking as a dependence process.
| Bickel, W K; Hughes, J R; DeGrandpre, R J et al. (1992) Behavioral economics of drug self-administration. IV. The effects of response requirement on the consumption of and interaction between concurrently available coffee and cigarettes. Psychopharmacology (Berl) 107:211-6 |
| Bickel, W K; DeGrandpre, R J; Hughes, J R et al. (1991) Behavioral economics of drug self-administration. II. A unit-price analysis of cigarette smoking. J Exp Anal Behav 55:145-54 |
