Drug addiction is a major health and medical problem in Australia. It is a chronically relapsing condition for which there are few effective treatments. This project identifies novel circuits within the brain which are responsible for inhibiting drug taking. It will provide new knowledge on how we may able to prevent relapse to drug taking and so promote and maintain long -term abstinence.
Brain Pathways Underlying Vulnerability To Drug Relapse
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$416,788.00
Summary
Addiction to drugs is a major health and social burden for Australian society. Once addiction is established, prevention of relapse is the most significant obstacle to successful treatment. Unfortunately, efficacious pharmaceutical options to treat relapse are lacking. By employing an animal model of relapse that accurately reflects drug taking in humans the proposed project aims to advance our understanding of the brain mechanism underlying addiction.
Investigation Of Novel Therapeutic Targets For The Treatment Of Drug Addiction
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$294,892.00
Summary
Drug abuse remains one of the world’s leading health care problems and the current drugs available to treat drug addiction are largely ineffective. This project aims to investigate the potential of a novel therapeutic target for the treatment of drug addiction with has the capacity for substantially reduced off-target effects.
Brain Circuits Promoting Abstinence And Preventing Relapse To Alcohol Seeking
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$591,995.00
Summary
This project maps and manipulates the brain circuits that promote abstinence from alcohol use. It uses new techniques from neuroscience to control the activity of specific cell types in discrete brain circuits. In this way we can alter the activity of these circuits to build on the normal neural restorative processes that occur during abstinence from alcohol use to reduce, and possibly prevent, relapse.
The brain plays a major role in the overconsumption of high fat/high sugar foods and this contributes to obesity but it receives little attention when it comes to developing novel treatments. My lab showed that a FDA-approved smoking cessation medication, that is a nicotinic receptor modulator, decreased the overconsumption of sugar. This project aims are to identify which nicotinic receptors and brain circuits are involved in the overconsumption of sucrose to improve treatments for obesity.
Improving Sleep Outcomes In Addicted Populations To Promote Recovery
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$316,449.00
Summary
Sleep problems are one of the most common side-effects of people going through drug withdrawal and may play a role in predicting future relapse. This project will comprehensively examine the components of sleep that are disturbed in drug-using populations, identify biological markers that impact upon functional outcomes related to sleep behaviour, and pilot an intervention targeting improved sleep outcomes that could be incorporated into routine clinical practice.
The Investigation Of Markers Of Relapse And Potential Therapeutic Targets In Methamphetamine Dependence Using Novel Techniques
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$103,088.00
Summary
This project focuses on methamphetamine dependence. It will investigate some of the major harms associated with methamphetamine use and will seek to identify who is more likely to develop these harms. This research will use a range of novel measures and techniques to investigate biological, psychological, cognitive and social risk factors for methamphetamine-related harms. This study will contribute to a better understanding of methamphetamine dependence, and potential targets for treatment.
An RCT Of Cannabinoid Replacement Therapy (Sativex®) For The Management Of Treatment-resistant Cannabis Dependent Patients
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$788,133.00
Summary
This project is the first-ever outpatient RCT to test if the pharmaceutical cannabinoid Sativex can safely and cost-effectively deliver better treatment outcomes for patients seeking treatment for chronic cannabis dependence. Sativex is a mouth spray with equal parts THC and cannabidiol, and appears to have a safer pharmacological profile than illicit cannabis or synthetic THC alone. Thus Sativex may lead to lower rates of psychiatric adverse events and increased cannabis abstinence rates.
Contextual Control Over Relapse To Drug Seeking: Behavioural And Neural Mechanisms.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$395,750.00
Summary
Drug addiction is a major health and societal problem in Australia. It is consistently associated with an adverse impact upon individual users, their families, and communities. Prolonged drug use is associated with increased rates of physical problems (e.g., cardiovascular disease), mental health problems (e.g., depression and anxiety), and criminal involvement (e.g., property crimes and incarceration). A defining feature of drug addiction is that it is a chronically relapsing condition. Between ....Drug addiction is a major health and societal problem in Australia. It is consistently associated with an adverse impact upon individual users, their families, and communities. Prolonged drug use is associated with increased rates of physical problems (e.g., cardiovascular disease), mental health problems (e.g., depression and anxiety), and criminal involvement (e.g., property crimes and incarceration). A defining feature of drug addiction is that it is a chronically relapsing condition. Between 60-80% of addicts attempting to give up drug taking will relapse to drug taking. The behavioural and brain mechanisms which underpin this persistent propensity to relapse are largely unknown. This project studies the behavioural and brain mechanisms for relapse to drug addiction. This project uses a well validated animal model of drug taking to ask why relapse occurs. It will identify some of the environmental antecedents to relapse and the brain mechanisms which mediate relapse. As such, this project will project will provide important information about relapse to drug addiction and may help identify targets for therapeutic intervention and possibly disrupt the addictive cycle.Read moreRead less