IP: Dra. María F. Galindo Anaya

Resumen del proyecto: Drug consumption represents a problem in all developed countries, especially in Spain. The results obtained from epidemiological studies are alarming, however, prevention policies are still inadequate due to the lack of scientific information contrasted about the effects of drug consumption.
The purpose of this study is to create a Net of Alcohol and Substances of Abuse composed by different types of specialists able to approach the study of the problems of alcohol and/or cocaine consumption from a multifactorial point of view. In this manner, we can count with three Units of Adictive Behaviors ((Albacete, Ciudad Real and Cuenca) formed by physicians and psychologists specialized that will carry out a study dealing with the different patterns of impulsivity in alcohol and cocaine consumers. The samples of blood obtained will be sent to the Neuropsychopharmacology Unit in the CHUA that will extract the genomic DNA and later will sent the DNA to a national genotyping center (genetic polymorphisms analyses).
On the other hand, the brain dopaminergic function will be studied in the HGCR by using the positron emission tomography (PET) in selected patients on the basis of its degree of impulsivity.
The animal models of substance of abuse diseases represent the support of traslational research. The use of experimental animal models will allow us to find out the influence of the consumption of alcohol and/or cocaine on the neurochemical patterns and to identify the neurochemical alterations associated to the behavior.
We are firmly convinced that the union of specialists composing the team will results clearly beneficial to increase the knowledge about the alcohol and cocaine dependence and will allow to obtain results that each group by itself would not achieve.

Entidad financiadora: Fundación para la Investigación Sanitaria en Castilla-La Mancha