School Notes: School of Medicine
September/October 2009

Yale to host gambling research center

Yale University is one of two sites selected to host the first Centers of Excellence in Gambling Research established by the National Center for Responsible Gaming (NCRG). (The other is the University of Minnesota.) Each center will receive a three-year grant of $402,500 to conduct long-term multidisciplinary research and education efforts aimed at combating gambling disorders. The Yale center will be headed by Marc Potenza ’87, ’93PhD, ’94MD, associate professor of psychiatry and of child study, who will conduct clinical trials of the drug naltrexone as a potential treatment for problem gambling. The nonprofit NCRG has supported gambling research primarily through a $7 million grant to the Division on Addictions at Cambridge Health Alliance and through smaller project-based grants around the world. The creation of new centers marks an expansion of those efforts.

Researchers use photography to study gun violence

To raise awareness about gun violence in New Haven, the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program at Yale School of Medicine -- working with city teenagers in collaboration with the New Haven Family Alliance -- created a photo exhibit that illustrates how the issue affects New Haven youth.

Luke Hansen, a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at Yale, and his colleagues helped the teens identify the core issues surrounding gun violence and then asked them to take photographs that illustrate these issues. Afterward, they met in focus group meetings to reflect on the photos. Hansen said the research methods were effective in engaging populations that have traditionally been underrepresented in research. Researchers, he added, found that adolescents "seek family structures, whether from traditional family at home or from alternative relationships outside the home, that satisfy the need for safety and belonging."

Scientists collaborate in study of HIV among drug users in Malaysia

Yale University is partnering with the University of Malaya to fight the spread of HIV among drug users in Malaysia who are completing prison terms and transitioning back into the community. Malaysia suffers from one of the worst HIV epidemics among drug users in Southeast Asia, with 70 percent of HIV transmission linked to injection drug use. Yale and the University of Malaya will share academic and research resources to find ways to reduce HIV transmission in the prison community. The study will examine the use of methadone, a treatment for heroin addiction, compared with a behavioral intervention. "This study will examine pre-release interventions as a way to curb the HIV epidemic," said principal investigator Frederick L. Altice, a professor at the Yale School of Medicine and director of clinical and community research at the Yale AIDS Program. The project is funded by a $4.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health.