The Reporter: Dec 1994, Vol.5, No.4
Center to Develop Medications for Substance Abuse

The National Institute of Mental Health has awarded $1.045 million to the Division on Substance Abuse at the New York State Psychiatric Institute to establish a center dedicated to the development of novel medications to treat cocaine and heroin abuse.

Headed by Dr. Herbert Kleber, P&S professor of psychiatry, and Dr. Marian Fischman, P&S professor of behavioral biology in psychiatry, the center is one of three new federally funded centers in the country. Officially opened in late September, the center is based on the belief that because the addict population is heterogenous, effective medications that help subgroups are more likely than universal antidotes for the entire population.

With that philosophy in mind, three center projects have been funded for the first year of the five-year grant: a laboratory model for heroin abuse and understanding unique aspects of heroin use in human subjects to help develop new medications; brain imaging to measure cocaine effects and determine effects of medications; and new approaches to cocaine abuse medications.