NIDA: 25 Years of Progress

Over the past 25 years, NIDA's scientific research program has addressed the most essential questions about drug abuse, ranging from causes and consequences to prevention and treatment. Among its many and diverse accomplishments, NIDA-supported research has:

• Identified the molecular sites in the brain where every major drug of abuse has its initial effect. These discoveries pave the way to development of novel medications to break the cycle of addiction.
• Taken two medications (LAAM and naltrexone) through the FDA approval process for the treatment of opiate addiction; a third medication, buprenorphine, awaits FDA approval.
• Developed and evaluated pharmacologic treatment for newborns in withdrawal from exposure to narcotics.
• Spawned science-based behavioral therapies for drug abuse, including effective therapies for cocaine and nicotine addiction; through the Institute's "Therapy Manuals for Drug Addiction," made methods widely available for the health care community.
• Completed longitudinal studies in large populations that helped researchers identify behavioral and social antecedents to drug abuse as targets for therapeutic intervention.
• Defined nicotine addiction and the scientific basis for therapy using nicotine gum and skin patches.
• Pioneered innovative community-based research on AIDS prevention; shown that drug users will change AIDS risk behaviors, reducing their susceptibility to and the spread of HIV/AIDS.
• Shown that successful drug abuse treatment reduces criminality and relapse to addiction.
• Proved the value of treating drug abusers' depression and other mental disorders.
• Measured the benefit of research-based drug prevention strategies in communities that involve the media, schools, families, neighborhoods, and the workplace.
• Pioneered the design of innovative epidemiological research into hidden and illegal behaviors associated with drug use and addiction.
• Used advanced imaging techniques to identify specific human brain circuits involved in craving, euphoria, and other sequelae of drug addiction; provided the foundation for development of new medications to block individual effects of drugs.
• Produced genetically engineered animals in which a particular drug receptor had been eliminated, or "knocked out," providing unprecedented insight about how drugs affect the brain and produce addiction.
• Demonstrated that prenatal exposure to cigarettes and marijuana have long-term effects on cognitive performance.
• Immunized rats against the psychostimulant effects of cocaine, opening the possibility of vaccination against cocaine addiction for people.