The Section houses an ACGME accredited Addiction Psychiatry Fellowship Program (currently directed by Drs. Brower and Alkhouri) , as well as three NIH funded research training programs which provide very strong research training for post-residency psychiatrists, post-doctoral behavioral scientists, and a small offshoot program of predoctoral students (primarily out of Psychology). , The NIAAA funded (T32) multidisciplinary research training program is in its 19th year of operation with current training involving 1 MD, 3 Ph.Ds, and two predoctural fellows.
The Section also has a significant involvement in international collaborative research training with physician/psychiatrists and behavioral scientists in Poland. This involves two NIH funded international research training programs for Polish physician researchers and postdoctoral fellows, one supported by the NIH Fogarty International Center and NIDA, the second, an offshoot project from the first program, funded by the Fogarty Center and NIAAA. Current Ann Arbor trainees in this program are two Polish MD psychiatrists who are working on their Ph.Ds while being mentored here. The program operates in collaboration with the Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology in Warsaw (the NIMH/NIAAA/NIDA of Poland). Also part of this work, for the past five years the Section has been running an annual substance abuse research training workshop in Poland each September, which typically attracts 25-30 attendees, and increasingly is drawing from other countries in Eastern Europe. In the course of this work we have consulted with Poland's Deputy Minister of Health, with members of Parliament, and with senior substance abuse researchers around the country. Figure 1 illustrates the spread of this program and the visibility of the Department/University as a result of this activity.
In addition to the training programs and the Addiction Psychiatry Fellowship program, other educational activities of the Section involve:
Responsibility for the M3 substance abuse lectures;
training 96 M3 medical students as part of their 6 week psychiatry rotation.
Training 6 psychiatry interns/year who rotate through the clinical operation for 2 months each.
Organizing and running the Department's annual Addiction Psychiatry Day which draws psychiatry residents from around the state, and typically has an attendance in the 70-80 range. This activity serves two functions: 1) to provide residents in psychiatry with practical clinical information they can use to assess and treat their patients with substance use disorders, and (2) to interest them in applying for a fellowship in addiction psychiatry.
Operation of a year-round undergraduate research methods practicum course, carried out under the aegis of the LS& A Psychology Department but organized and fully run by Substance Abuse Section faculty, and typically carrying an enrollment of 15+ students each term. This operation serves an undergraduate research mission, but equally importantly is a continuing recruitment venue for later full time research assistant staff.
Regularly operate five different research seminars/meetings:
- A weekly journal club currently run by Dr. Karam-Hage for Addiction Psychiatry Fellows, residents, and post-doctoral fellows. Focus on evidence based practice, including review articles and new treatment studies
- A monthly journal club run by Dr. Jester for UMARC fellows and junior faculty.
- A peer-run monthly research seminar for all post-docs and junior faculty
- A quarterly Science Update for all research fellows to present their ongoing work to Center faculty
- A monthly research presentation, conducted as part of the Section's monthly faculty meeting. The presentation involves outside speakers, from outside the University, about half the time and Section faculty the rest of the time. Typical attendance is 20-25 attendees.
In carrying out these research seminar meetings, the Section simultaneously provides a strong infrastructure for the communication of evidence based practice. Meetings are open to all medical students, residents, addiction psychiatry fellows, postdoctoral trainees, and Section faculty.