Clinical Substance Abuse Research in 2015 The scientific and academic communities are always on the case to increase our knowledge and understanding of substance abuse problems. 2015 will be no different. Learning why these problems occur, how they occur, and how to treat them is the name of the game. There are many opportunities arising this year to expand our capabilities in combating this problem, from student internships and scholarships, increased government budgets, to training for new substance abuse counselors, conferences and colloquiums, using big data, and more.
Summer Research Programs
While there are countless chances for aspiring addiction counselors to get into the field and gain some real world experience, one of the most celebrated is the National Institute on Drug Abuse’s (NIDA) Summer Research Program. Students will gain 8 weeks of hands-on internship in lab experiments, data collection, and attendance to scientific meetings, literature reviews, and patient interviews. Everything our future rehabilitation specialists may need to know will be shown to them, and they will get paid for it too!
Increased Funding for Research
NIDA will also receive an additional $7 million or so in funding compared to 2014, bringing them up to a total of just over $1.023 billion. This money is intended for use in categories such as research project grants, research training, research and development for treatments, and intramural research. All
of that sounds complicated and basically means that there’s plenty of money to pay folks to learn and share the best cures and treatment methods. It’s hard to ask for more.
Conferences and Training Sessions
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is maintaining an official schedule for all of the upcoming conferences professionals can attend. It’s constantly having new events added and old ones removed, so take a look if you’re interested in attending one, because they are scattered all throughout the United States and there may be one near you.
Big Data
Perhaps the most exciting new area that’s being opened up in disciplines of all types is that of Big Data. Over the years, we have performed experiments, collected self-reports, and reported on observational data that has accumulated into a tome of knowledge so broad that no human can deal with it. Research companies perform meta-research even, where all they do is research the older research papers!
Big Data is the process of normalizing all of this information and letting our computers manipulate it and find useful patterns beyond our ability to notice. This year and the following could produce some very beneficial answers and methods thanks to this new practice.
Conclusion
Never fear. Our society is highly motivated to discovering better ways of dealing with substance abuse. In time, all of the answers and capabilities will be present, and then it’ll just be up to us as addicts to want to change. The future is looking very bright as new research answers old questions and
asks even better ones.