Center researchers will approach adolescent drug abuse on levels ranging from the individual to the social and cultural. They will integrate theories and methods from diverse areas including the neurobiology of memory, epidemiological analysis, clinical psychology, prevention science, social network analysis and cross-cultural research.
The center will be headquartered at the USC Institute for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Research (IPR).
"There are many complex reasons why someone becomes a drug abuser," says Alan W. Stacy, Ph.D., director and principal investigator of the newly funded center. "To understand them and to develop effective ways of preventing drug abuse among young people, our center will look at the problem from a wide range of scientific disciplines using a combination of theoretical approaches and research methods.
"To support this research and pave the way for future transdisciplinary research projects, an important part of our work will be to train investigators to reach out to, understand and incorporate approaches used by researchers in disciplines other than their own."
Stacy, associate professor of preventive medicine at the Keck School, and his team will conduct their studies over the next five years.
"This grant to USC helps advance NIDA's National Drug Abuse Prevention Research Initiative designed to tap into the expertise of basic science researchers, prevention specialists, clinicians and health service researchers to collectively work toward the development of innovative approaches to reducing drug use nationwide," says Glen Hanson, Ph.D., D.D.S., acting director
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Contact: Jon Weiner
jonweine@usc.edu
323-442-2830
University of Southern California
5-Nov-2002