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WRC grant to help focus on relapse of abuse by Heather Murphy Public Relations Anecdotal reports suggest that men and women relapse into substance abuse for different reasons.    Kathleen Brady, M.D., Ph.D., and Carrie Randall, Ph.D., both of the Institute of Psychiatry and Center for Drug and Alcohol Programs, hope to turn anecdotes into empirical data. This is one of the first research initiatives undertaken as part of the developing Neuroscience Institute at MUSC.   A center grant totaling $4.4 million by the National Institute of Health (NIH) will fund the Women’s Research Center (WRC), to be co-directed by Brady and Randall. The WRC will focus on gender differences in relapse to substance abuse.   Projects in the center are based on both animal and clinical human models to test the hypothesis that gender differences exist in response to two kinds of relapse “cues.”    “There are two general perceptions of relapse,” Brady said. “The first is that relapse is externally motivated, like peer pressure to take a drug. The second is that it’s internally motivated, meaning that an individual relapses because he or she is depressed or unhappy.”   “Our long-term goals are to use this center grant to jumpstart women’s research on campus, raise awareness of women’s issues, and include more women in research samples,” Randall said.    Brady and Randall’s vision of the WRC also includes the anticipated marriage of clinical evidence and empirical data.    “Scientists from both the empirical and the clinical sides should help each other to base practice on empirical evidence,” she said.   Brady dubs this concept “crosstalk.”   “Both Carrie and I have been in the field a long time and there is very little clinical research relating to gender differences,” Brady said. “We’ve observed these differences in our individual work, so it was only natural to examine the literature and see what was out there. We realized a major vacuum existed and noted how under-researched gender differences really are.”    Enter an opportunity from the NIH via the Office of Research on Women’s Health.  “With most center grants you have a year or more to prepare and write it,” Randall said. “We learned of this one in January and had to meet a March 15 deadline.”    While many people would have bolted given the amount of pressure involved in orchestrating a center grant in less than three months, Brady and Randall capitalized on their combined clinical and empirical expertise and used the MUSC Alcohol Research Center as a template for the WRC.    “It’s not that we needed something else to do,” Randall laughed. “When the opportunity came, we just piled more onto the plate.”  “We couldn’t let MUSC miss the opportunity,” Brady said. “The administration has been very supportive and realizes that the WRC can help to maintain MUSC’s position as a nationally recognized academic medical center.”   Both women said their interest in gender research stemmed from researching other scientific problems like drinking during pregnancy and drug relapse.    “I think we both started paying attention and considered the role of gender differences in identification of disorders, treatment needs and the kinds of treatment prescribed,” Randall said. “The way the medical community used to approach treatment was a one-size-fits-all approach. We realized this was not the way to go.”   “In the early 90s, other disciplines, like cardiology and oncology were realizing gender differences as well,” Brady noted.   And involving other disciplines in gender research is exactly what Brady and Randall have in mind.   “We want to stimulate more research outside of the center that would be extramurally-funded and mirror our substance abuse research,” Brady said. She encourages other researchers to contact her or Randall to catalyze other work.   The investigators also plan to initiate a speaker series in conjunction with the WRC that will serve the purpose of education, community outreach, and stimulation of research ideas.   The series will begin next year and the WRC’s Web site will be on the Web within the next year. Specific aims of MUSC WRC Focus, coordinate, and integrate efforts into one program of gender-related research in substance abuse disorders. Build infrastructure to encourage and support gender-based research growth on campus. Attract trainees and new faculty to the area of patient-based research in women’s health issues. Centralize various individual research efforts currently underway as well as those in SCOR (Specialized Center of Research). Produce educational and training resource for research in women’s health. Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to petersnd@musc.edu or catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Community Press at 849-1778.