The NIDA International Program has supported researchers who participated in three recent scientific meetings:
- Paul Haber, M.D., Medical Director of the Drug Health Service at Sydney South West Area Health Services Australia, and Felice Nava, M.D., Ph.D., Scientific Committee Director for the Italian Society of Addiction Medicine and a consultant physician at the Department of Addiction Medicine, Hospital of Castelfranco Veneto, Italy, spoke at the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) meeting in San Francisco, California, on April 15–18, 2010. NIDA International Program Director Steven W. Gust, Ph.D., also spoke during the session, “Alternatives to Conventional Treatment: A Joint Session With the International Society of Addiction Medicine,” that was sponsored by NIDA and organized by Marc Galanter, M.D., University of Wisconsin, and Jag Khalsa, Ph.D., NIDA Division of Pharmacotherapies and Medical Consequences of Addiction, to introduce the breadth of alternative and innovative approaches being developed for addiction treatment outside the United States.
- Dr. Inger Marie Bernhoft, Technical University of Denmark, participated in a 1-day workshop on research needs related to drugs and driving, held on March 19, 2010, at the NIH campus. NIDA hosted the meeting to gain expert advice on the current state of the science and knowledge gaps in the field of drugged driving, which it will use to guide future research efforts. Dr. Bernhoft described ongoing research being conducted under the Epidemiology Work Package of the Driving Under the Influence of Drugs, Alcohol, and Medicines project.
- Dr. Robert P. Schwartz, Friends Research Institute, spoke on “Pharmacotherapy for Opiate Addiction in Prison” during the Kasr Al-Ainy Annual International Psychiatry Conference, held in Cairo, Egypt, on February 24–25, 2010. Dr. Schwartz presented findings from his recently completed randomized clinical trial of methadone in prison and an early report from an ongoing clinical trial of buprenorphine for opiate-addicted prisoners.