A Transdisciplinary Focus on Drug Abuse Prevention: An Introduction

Abstract

This article introduces the scope of the Special Issue. A variety of scientific disciplines are brought together to establish theoretical integration of the arenas of drug use, misuse, “abuse,” and drug misuse prevention. Transdisciplinary scientific collaboration (TDSC) is utilized as a process of integration. Introductory comments regarding the strengths and limitations of TDSC are presented. Then, the relevance of genetics to substance misuse and substance misuse prevention is presented. Next, the relevance of cognition for prevention is discussed. Specifically, neurologically plausible distinctions in cognition and implicit cognition and their relevance for prevention are discussed. At a relatively molar social-level of analysis, social network theory, systems dynamic models, geographic information systems models, cultural psychology, and political science approaches to drug misuse and its prevention are introduced. The uses of both quantitative and qualitative statistical approaches to prevention are mentioned next. Finally, targeted prevention, bridging the efficacy-effectiveness gap, and a statement on overcoming disbalance round out the Special Issue. The bridges created will serve to propel drug misuse “prevention science” forward in the years to come. Advances in understanding etiological issues, translation to programs, and ecological fit of programming are desired results.

• Drug misuse
• Hybrid research methods
• Tansdisciplinarity

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Steve Sussman

Steve Sussman, Ph.D., FAAHB, is a Professor of Preventive Medicine and Psychology at the University of Southern California. He uses empirical program development methods in tobacco and drug abuse prevention and cessation research, and has 200 publications. He is a member of the editorial board of Substance Use and Misuse. His projects include TNT, TND, and EX, considered model programs at numerous agencies. He received his doctorate in Social-Clinical Psychology from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1984.

Alan W. Stacy

Alan W. Stacy, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor at the Institute for Prevention Research, Department of Preventive Medicine, University of Southern California and the Director of the Transdisciplinary Drug Abuse Prevention Research Center. His research interests include applying theories of associative memory to etiologic models of addiction and health behavior and attempts at new integrations across different research areas, including associative memory, neuroscience, prevention, and drug abuse. He is also attempting to foster additional integrations at the center from other areas (e.g., social networks, anthropology, sociology, etc). He received his doctorate in Social and Personality Psychology from the University of California, Riverside in 1986.

C. Anderson Johnson

C. Anderson Johnson, Ph.D., is Professor of Preventive Medicine and Psychology and Director of the Institute for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Research at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine. His research focuses on understanding the determinants of health-related lifestyles and approaches to prevention of behavioral risks for disease. His areas of concentration include tobacco, alcohol, and other drug use, nutritional practices and physical exercise, and communication strategies for health promotion. Dr. Johnson is Director of the Transdisciplinary Tobacco Use Research Center funded by the National Cancer Institute, National Institute on Drug Abuse, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. He is also Director of the China Seven Cities Study, a study of health-related lifestyles and approaches to tobacco use prevention and control in China. Dr. Johnson received his doctorate in Social Psychology from Duke University, in 1974.

Mary Ann Pentz

Mary Ann Pentz, Ph.D., is Director of the Center for Prevention Policy Research and Professor in the Department of Preventive Medicine at the University of Southern California. For over a decade, Dr. Pentz's research has focused on community and policy approaches to tobacco, alcohol, and drug abuse prevention in youth. She has published widely in psychology, public health, and medical journals on the use of multicomponent approaches to community-based prevention that include mass media. Her findings from longitudinal prevention trials contributed to the formulation of a U.S. Senate bill, and use of evidence-based criteria for appropriating funds for prevention under the Safe and Drug Free Schools Act. Dr. Pentz has chaired the NIDA Epidemiology and Prevention study section, and has served on the evaluation advisory boards for CSAP's Community Partnership grants program and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Fighting Back Initiative. She also served on the Office of National Drug Control Policy's Campaign Design Expert panel to design the new anti-drug abuse media campaign that Congress has just approved. She received her baccalaureate in Psychology from Hamilton College and her doctorate in Psychology from Syracuse University in 1978.

Elizabeth Robertson

Elizabeth Robertson, Ph.D., has been the Chief of the Prevention Research Branch at the National Institute on Drug Abuse since 1997. In that capacity she has broadened the branch mission of preventing drug abuse and drug-related HIV infection to include a developmental focus from early childhood through adulthood. In addition, prevention intervention contexts such as the family, clinical settings, and the media have been targeted. High priority areas for continued portfolio development include the integration basic prevention research (understanding the underlying biological, social, and psychological processes that account for intervention success or failure), and prevention services research. She received her doctorate in Human Development at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 1988 and completed a post-doctoral fellowship with the Carolina Consortium on Human Development at the University on North Carolina at Chapel Hill, in 1990.