Seminars to Focus on Addictions-Related Topics

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The University at Buffalo's Research Institute on Addictions (RIA) is presenting a spring seminar series on addictions-related topics featuring national experts beginning on March 9.

The four-part series will be free, open to the public and held on designated Fridays at 10 a.m. in the RIA building at 1021 Main St. on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus.

The opening presentation by Kathleen E. Miller, Ph.D., on March 9 will focus on "Jocks, Gender, Binge Drinking, and Adolescent Violence: Exploring the 'Toxic Jock'." Research by Miller, a research scientist at RIA and adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Sociology in UB's College of Arts and Sciences, focuses on sports-related adolescent health risk, adolescent substance use, sports and gender.

On April 20, Norman E. Spear, Ph.D., will present "Roots of Alcoholism: Very Early Exposure to Ethanol?" Spear, a distinguished professor of psychology at Binghamton University, is director of the Center for Developmental Psychobiology and clinical professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the Clinical Campus of Upstate Medical Center. His research studies include animal models of early ethanol intake and its consequences, adolescents' responses to ethanol, and ethanol intake and reinforcement in infant rats.

The seminars continue on May 4 with a discussion of "The Pharmacogenetics of Alcoholism" by Henry R. Kranzler, M.D. Kranzler is associate scientific director of the Alcohol Research Center and program director of the Lowell P. Weicker, Jr. General Clinical Research Center at the University of Connecticut Health Center. His current research is investigating the genetics and pharmacological treatment of alcohol and drug dependence and common co-morbid psychiatric disorders.

The series will close on May 18 with a presentation on "Intimate Partner Violence and Drinking Among White, Black, and Hispanic Couples in the U.S." by Raul Caetano, M. D., Ph.D. Caetano is regional dean of the University of Texas School of Public Health Dallas Regional Campus and dean of the Southwestern Allied Health Sciences School, which are both housed in the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. His expertise and research interests are focused on domestic violence epidemiology, the epidemiology of substance abuse, alcohol-related problems among ethnic groups and general population surveys.

For more information about the seminars contact RIA at 716-887-2566.

The Research Institute on Addictions has been a leader in the study of addictions since 1970 and a research center of the University at Buffalo since 1999. The University at Buffalo is a premier research-intensive public university, the largest and most comprehensive campus in the State University of New York.