To Carol Cushing, With Love
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 With our most mixed emotions and on behalf of our Steering Committee and our CCTN we share with you that Carol Cushing will be retiring from government service. Carol has been with the CTN since its inception and has played as central a role as anyone in bringing together a diverse group of providers, researchers, funders and policy-makers to make CTN the collegial and productive network that it has become.
Many of us recall the critical trust-building efforts of the first years, and Carol's unflagging cheerleading. She baked for us at almost every meeting, she supported the CTP caucus, she almost single-handedly published the CTN Bulletin for over a decade, and she took on a range of responsibilities in CCTN that none of us fully appreciated until they needed to be reassigned.
Carol is tireless and diligent in her pursuit of new knowledge. She is innovative, she's initiated new programs on her own and trained and retrained herself to meet CTN needs -- an example is the NIDA data share which she initiated and through which NIDA now leads NIH in this area. Carol reads extensively, she writes well and she shares what she reads with CCTN and the network regularly.
Carol is honest as the day is long, she has a strong sense of justice, impeccable ethical standards, and the courage to speak up and to stand up to authority. She's kept us all honest and she's helped us find ways to do the impossible. By training Carol is a nurse who has brought her clinical background to serving the public health and the Federal government with unyielding commitment. She's known for her generosity and kindness in spirit and in action, particularly to junior investigators and supporting staff both within the CTN and across NIDA, and she's unselfish in helping others achieve their successes while she stays backstage. We all know and recognize that her competency, in everything she takes on, is un-matched.
On a more personal level she's also an extraordinary human being who has been a loving and committed daughter to her mom who lived with Carol till the last few months of life; Carol was her nurse with a full time day-job. Carol took care of her with her own nursing skills and did something truly extraordinary – she provided her mom with love, stability and trust till the last day.
We'll miss Carol terribly, we hope that she'll visit often, and we wish her a world of happiness and fulfillment in her retirement.
Best holiday wishes to everyone,
Betty Tai on behalf of the CCTN
John Rotrosen on behalf of the CTN Steering Committee
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CTN Trial Progress
 Study results for Open Studies as of the December 20 trial Progress Report.
CTN-0050 - Long Term Follow-up to CTN-0027: Enrolled 877 (original N=1,267 START Study participants)
CTN-0051 - X-BOT (Extended Release Naltrexone vs. Buprenorphine for Opioid Treatment). Enrolled 570
CTN-0051-A2 - Detoxification TAU. Enrolled 211
CTN-0056-Ot - Testing and Linkage to HIV Care in China. Enrolled 478
CTN-0057-Ot - SBIRT-PC (SBIRT in Primary Care). Enrolled 108 (N=120)
CTN-0064 - Linkage to HCV Care. Enrolled 109
Total Enrolled in all Studies: 24,215
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NIDA Hosts Teleconference to Discuss 2016 Promising Monitoring the Future Results
 The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) hosted a press teleconference on December 13, 2016 to discuss the findings of the 42nd annual Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey.
This year's MTF survey of drug use and attitudes among American 8th, 10th, and 12th graders indicate a promising decline among most illicit drugs, with marijuana use staying relatively steady.
Past year use of any illicit drug was the lowest in the survey's history for 8th graders and stable for 10th and 12th graders. Marijuana use remained relatively stable in the past couple of years, however daily marijuana use among 8th graders dropped significantly in 2016. Additionally, the survey indicates that marijuana, as well as electronic vaporizers (e-cigarettes), are now more popular than regular tobacco cigarettes.
The MTF survey, funded by NIDA, is conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. Dr. Lloyd Johnston was presented a NIDA Certificate of Appreciation for his work on the project since its inception in 1975. For more about the study and this year's results, click here. . .
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News from the Nodes
Mid-Southern
 The CTN-0071-Ot EHR-DARE Study was launched this month! Selected participants will receive an email from the Duke University study team's mailbox - EHR-DARE@duke.edu.
Some participants may receive multiple invitations for various arms of the study. Your participation in each is greatly appreciated.
- Aim 1: Investigator and Clinician Survey - Online e-survey, link is embedded in email.
- Aim 2 Wave 1: Health IT Survey - Online e-survey, link is embedded in email.
- Aim 2 Wave 2: Clinical Workflow Interview - Invitation information is included in email, Duke staff will contact to schedule interview by phone.
Ohio Valley
 Researchers from the University of Kentucky in the Ohio Valley Node were recently featured in NIDA Notes for their work on using Quinine as a tracer for medication adherence. Because quinine has a predictable rate of elimination, if it were added in low doses to medications, clinicians or researchers could potentially ascertain whether a patient had taken it—and the medication with which it is combined—as directed.
In their manuscript, "Quinine as a potential tracer for medication adherence: A pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic assessment of quinine alone and in combination with oxycodone in humans" (Babalonis S, Hampson AJ, Lofwall MR, Nuzzo PA, Walsh SL. Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. 2015;55(12):1332-1343. doi:10.1002/jcph.557), the team at UK found that quinine might be a good candidate for combining with medication to monitor adherence, and suggest that further exploration might be warranted.
Congratulations to the team at UK for this important finding! |
N ortheast Node
The Northeast Node co-sponsored the Dartmouth College 10th annual C. Everett Koop Symposium on Addiction Medicine, Thursday, December 8, 2016.
This year's symposium, "Reducing Behavioral Health Stigma in Healthcare Systems and Communities," featured speakers from various settings that encounter behavioral health stigma in their daily activities.
In one of the most well-attended symposia in the northeast region in recent years, over 130 people from various healthcare, behavioral healthcare, law enforcement, public health, and other related settings attended the day’s events.
This year’s symposium was led by Dr. Seddon Savage, education advisor to the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Substance Use and Mental Health Initiative, and Medical Director of the Chronic Pain and Recovery Center at Silver Hill Hospital in Connecticut.
Attendees heard presentations on various forms of stigma encountered in behavioral health treatment. Stigma affecting substance use treatment was pervasive throughout, with several speakers and attendees identifying themselves as in recovery.
This didactic blend of presentations allowed symposium attendees to discuss stigma from multiple angles, provided insight into the effects of stigma on the rural populations served, and invited providers from various fields to consider the effect stigma has on their patients, especially those with a substance use disorder. The importance of words, titles, and even proper diagnoses for patients is imperative to reducing stigma and breaking down silos in healthcare.
Presentations from the symposium can be found on the Northeast Node's website at http://www.ctnnortheastnode.org/stigma-symposium/ |
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 From the Addiction Technology Transfer Center Network
Project ECHO: Expanding Access to Treatment for Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders by Supporting Primary Care Teams with the ECHO Model -- this month's featured article in the ATTC Messenger (December 2016)
The Impact of Cannabis Legalization on the Treatment of Substance Use Disorders: Views from the Front Lines -- this month's featured article in the ATTC newsletter The Bridge (Fall 2016)
ATTC/NIATx Service Improvement Blog
HealtheKnowledge: New Course: Supporting Recovery with Medications for Addiction Treatment
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Webinars, Trainings, Other Events
CSAT/CTN Webinar Series
 If you've missed any of the installments in the new CSAT/CTN Webinar series, be sure to check them out in the CTN Dissemination Library. The series is focusing on a range of topics related to CTN collaborations with CSAT. Webinars so far have addressed:
NIDA CTN Initiatives & Primary Care Opioid Use Disorders
Adolescent/Youth Projects Updates
Research and Evaluation of Treatment and Treatment Systems for Pregnant and Parenting Women with OUD
CTN Steering Committee and Annual Scientific Meeting
 This spring's meeting, March 22-24, 2017, will provide a forum for knowledge exchange of current substance abuse treatment research findings and their policy implications. Topics will cover long-term opioid treatment, management of adolescent substance use disorders (SUDs), applications of mHealth to addiction treatment, Precision Medicine, treatment of HIV-infected patients with SUDs, and integrating substance use research with Practice-Based Research Networks.
Details and registration: http://apps.leedmci.com/nida/ctn/meetings/ |
UCLA Summer Institute on Longitudinal Research & International Conference on Global Health
 The 2017 conference will be held August 15-17 in Universal City, which is accessible to Westwood, Santa Monica, Downtown, West Hollywood, and other surrounding areas of Los Angeles.
Applications for posters, oral presentations, and symposia, as well as travel awards, must be submitted by February 15, 2017.
Find out more about the conference, abstract submission, travel awards, and more here:
http://www.caldar.org/2017conference/
Download and share the latest flyer!
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Congratulations to the CTN-0064 Team!
CTN-0064 randomized its 100th participant on November 22, 2016! Thank you, 0064 team, for all your hard work in helping the study reach this milestone. While we have a lot more work to do, this is a wonderful achievement to celebrate!
CTN-0064 is a study of linkage to hepatitis C virus (HCV) care among HIV/HCV co-infected substance users. Read more about the study here. . .
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 New from the CTN Dissemination Library
The Role of Behavioral Interventions in Buprenorphine Maintenance Treatment: A Review. Carroll KM, Weiss RD. American Journal of Psychiatry 2016 (in press). Read more. . .
A Polymorphism in the OPRM1 3'-Untranslated Region is Associated with Methadone Efficacy in Treating Opioid Dependence. Crist RC, et al. Pharmacogenomics Journal 2016 (in press). Read more. . .
Qualitative and Quantitative Feedback Following Workshop Training in Evidence-Based Practices: A Dissemination Study. Houck JM, et al. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice 2016;47(6):413-417. Read more. . .
Factors Associated with HIV Testing Among Participants from Substance Use Disorder Treatment Programs in the US: A Machine Learning Approach. Pan Y, et al. AIDS and Behavior 2016 (in press). Read more. . .
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