Health Center researcher studies alcohol, marijuana addiction

Psychiatry professor Ronald Kadden has developed his professional portfolio through the study of alcoholics and alcoholism and chronic pot smokers.

He also has a decade’s clinical experience running the Health Center’s Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment Center.

His next research project, a collaboration with three Health Center substance abuse researchers, builds on many of the findings he’s documented over the years.

One of the most important variables in substance abuse treatment success, he says, is not a specified treatment protocol, but rather the patient’s self-efficacy – the belief that he or she has the ability to make changes and engage in activities that help keep him or her sober.

The research is funded by a five-year, $2.8 million grant from the National Institute of Drug Abuse.

Kadden will collaborate with Mark Litt, a professor of oral health and diagnostic science, who made the initial observation; Nancy Petry, a professor of psychiatry; and Elise Kabela-Cormier, a research associate, to test the idea.

The project is the latest in a career’s worth of research for Kadden, a Hartford native, who joined the Health Center in 1980 as a researcher and deputy director, then director, of the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment Center.

Together with Health Center researcher Ned Cooney, and faculty colleagues at Brown University, he developed a cognitive behavior manual for treating alcohol dependence.

The manual focuses on training and development of skills that provide alternate ways of coping with situations in which the client is most likely to drink.

The manual is widely used and has been translated into several foreign languages. It also has been adapted for use with marijuana-dependent patients.

Kadden’s studies in alcohol treatment showed that training in different coping methods was effective for those alcoholics harboring anti-social tendencies and those with severe psychiatric problems.

The bottom line was the identification of the importance of coping skills for improving alcoholism treatment outcomes.

His marijuana research provided evidence that “pot” was considerably more addictive than people thought: the chronic users who came for treatment were really struggling to quit, and couldn’t do it on their own. They needed help.

He continues to conduct research on the best ways to find help for chronic marijuana users and promote abstinence.