Nearly 12,000 drug treatment programs around the country will benefit from years of drug abuse and addiction research thanks to the NIDA Clinical Toolbox: Science-Based Materials for Drug Abuse Counselors. The toolbox, packaged in a bright gray box with a large "TX" on the front, will be available later this month from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).
"One of NIDA's mandates is to disseminate state-of-the-art research information about drug addiction and its treatment," explained Dr. Alan I. Leshner, NIDA Director. "Our understanding of drug abuse and addiction has literally been revolutionized by scientific research over the past decade," he continued. "This new toolbox provides treatment professionals with a wealth of materials on new and effective approaches to help patients with drug-related problems."
Dr. Leshner publicly introduced the toolbox today at Yale University, which is the New England node of NIDA's National Drug Abuse Clinical Trials Network (CTN). The Clinical Trials Network is a structured partnership of NIDA treatment researchers and community-based service providers aimed at cooperatively developing, refining, and delivering new treatment options to patients in community-level clinical settings.
The toolbox is similar to a magazine file box. Large enough to store all current NIDA drug treatment publications, it also has room for material that will result from future NIDA-sponsored research. As additional reports and materials are developed, NIDA will disseminate them to the treatment programs for inclusion in the toolbox.
This convenient, up-to-date resource for program counselors and managers contains:
- Three therapy manuals on treatment of cocaine addiction, which highlight the "cognitive-behaviorial," "community reinforcement plus vouchers," and "individual counseling" approaches.
- Approaches to Drug Abuse Counseling
- Principles of Drug Addiction Treatment: A Research-Based Guide
- NIDA Research Reports (up-to-date research information on anabolic steroids, cocaine, heroin, inhalants, nicotine, and methamphetamine).
- Commonly-Abused Drug Chart