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Missing Issue of SPIN Found
Dedicated readers of SPIN may have noticed something missing from their in-boxes last month…the April Issue. I'll dispense with the dog-ate-my-book approach and confess that we were just too busy last month to produce SPIN. And so this first, and hopefully last, double-issue. I apologize for any distress caused by a
month's absence of science policy insider news. -Geoff
Congress Acts on APA's Call to Increase Support for VA
Research Just this week, the new Military Quality of Life
and VA Appropriations Subcommittee in the House of Representatives drafted
legislation that would double support for mental health research within
the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for Fiscal Year 2006. This
directly follows APA's testimony before the Subcommittee, in which
Executive Director for Science Steven Breckler urged lawmakers to increase
funding for the VA's Medical and Prosthetic Research Account, and the
psychological research program in particular. The VA funds intramural
research in support of its clinical mission to care for veterans, and VA
psychological scientists conduct research in high-priority areas such as
mental health, substance abuse, aging-related disorders, and physical and
psychosocial rehabilitation. The proposed increase in VA research dollars
comes after many years of flat funding and cuts in the Administration's
budget request for the account in Fiscal Years 2005 and 2006. The draft
funding legislation now will go before the whole House for a vote, and
eventually will be "conferenced" with the Senate's funding bill
before becoming law.  Read
Dr. Breckler's testimony
[back to top]
APA Urges Congress to Increase Spending for Research,
Services
In testimony submitted to the House and Senate
Appropriation Subcommittees on Labor, Health and Human Services and
Education, APA called for Congress to continue the progress begun with the
doubling of NIH’s budget several years ago, by increasing the NIH budget
by six percent instead of the 0.5 percent requested by the Administration.
APA also suggested that the National Institute of Mental Health balance
its portfolio of basic behavioral research and applied, disease-related
research in order to continue feeding the next generation of behavioral
treatments and other interventions. Furthermore, APA urged the Appropriations
Committees to continue directing the National Institute of General Medical
Sciences to develop a program in basic behavioral sciences research, or
training, or both. The statement read, “Much basic research is supported
at NIH by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, yet NIGMS
funds very little basic behavioral research. APA asks that the committee
continue to encourage or direct NIGMS, as it has for the past five years,
to fill some of the gaps that now appear in NIH support of basic
behavioral research and research training.”
APA’s statement called for an additional $15 million for Child Abuse Prevention programs in the Department of Health and Human
Services, development of additional research-based programs to prevent
bullying, and additional funding for the Graduate Psychology Education
program.
Read
APA's testimony [PDF 100K]
Friends of NIDA States Its Case to Appropriations
Committees
On April 1, the Friends of NIDA coalition submitted
written testimony for the record in support of funding for the National
Institute on Drug Abuse to the Labor, Health and Human Services
Appropriations Subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee. The
testimony, advocating for a 6% increase in NIDA's FY06 funding level,
summarized a variety of programmatic initiatives and described both NIDA
success stories as well as challenges and opportunities. The House version
of the testimony, identical in content, was submitted April 15.
Read
the FoN testimony [PDF 50K]
[back to top]
APA Provides Colorful Input to FDA
Following a request
for comments from the Food and Drug Administration on the use of color
in pharmaceutical labeling, APA collaborated with scientists from the
leadership of Division 21 (Applied Experimental and Engineering
Psychology) and psychologists from the Human Factors and Ergonomics
Society to compile a statement
for the record, submitted on April 7.
While there is empirical evidence suggesting that the use
of color can enhance or degrade the quality of a communication depending
on context, there appears to be a general lack of data on the use of color
in pharmaceutical labeling. Therefore, we hope that a call for more
research will shed light on this important public health/safety issue.
Read
the FDA's request for comments [PDF 20K]
Read
APA's Statement on the Use of Color Coding [PDF
55K]
APA Members Participate in Buprenorphine Summit
On April 11-12, Geoff Mumford, APA's Director of Science
Policy (and one-time behavioral pharmacologist), was invited to participate
on an Expert Panel in a summit to discuss progress on the use of
buprenorphine in the treatment of opiate dependence.
The Summit, a joint effort by SAMHSA and NIDA, brought together government
scientists, academicians, industry leaders and treatment providers to discuss
both positive and negative experiences in the implementation of a national
treatment strategy. APA member Leslie Amass, PhD, served as scientific Co-Chair
for the summit, and several other APA members presented at the conference and/or
participated in breakout work groups including: Drs. Thomas Freese, Hendree
Jones, Charles "Bob" Schuster, and Cheryl Stanton. APA members
participating as part of NIDA staff included Drs. Jane Acri and Cece McNamara.
Following a series of status reports from various invited speakers and panels
on day 1 of the Summit, six work groups met on day 2 to discuss priorities for,
and barriers to, advancing access to buprenorphine by examining: care settings
and model programs; integrated support systems for special populations; emerging
clinical issues; training and education; financing and policy challenges; and
surveillance and trend data. The Expert Panel will be charged with synthesizing
the output from the workgroups as a document to guide future buprenorphine
treatment initiatives.
The Summit generated consensus about at least one treatment barrier, a 30
patient limit on group practices which has negative repercussions for, among
others, university medical centers where many psychologists are conducting
buprenorphine research. The limit was added to the law that makes it possible
for physicians to administer buprenorphine from office-based settings in order to prevent
physicians from running prescription mills, but it has had unintended
consequences.
A SAMHSA official at the meeting suggested that a formal rule-making might be
in the works to withdraw the cap but was not at liberty to discuss a timeline.
Following the meeting, good news emerged from the House of Representatives, where
legislation to repeal the cap had stalled in the last congress but appears to be
moving forward again. APA was among several of the organizations endorsing a
Dear Colleague letter meant to generate support for the bills passage.
Read the
Dear Colleague letter in support of H.R. 869 [PDF 55K] [back to top]
Friends of NIDA Urge Membership in Tobacco Caucus
In an attempt raise awareness about the leading
preventable cause of death in the U.S., and to help remind Members of
Congress about the breadth of NIDA's research portfolio, the Friends of NIDA sent a
letter to all Members of the House of Representatives on April 12 urging
them to join the Congressional Caucus on Tobacco and Health.
Read
the FoN letter to House Members [PDF 25K]
Science Policy Staff Flee to Canada
The American Educational Research Association held its
annual meeting April 11-14 in Montreal, Canada. Science Policy
staffer Karen Studwell participated in a session focused on the intersection
of research and policy and discussed ways that researchers could ensure
that their research was able to inform policy decisions. The session also
included presentations by psychologists Pat Alexander, Jim Greeno, Barbara
McCombs and APA's Rena Subotnik. Most of the participants were able to cite those research areas that are more likely to be supported by federal
agencies, such as academic achievement and teacher quality, but there are
also other opportunities that can be found by contacting program staff at
the funding agencies. One way to ensure that research findings are
utilized by policymakers is to produce materials for the audience of
policymakers and their staff who need concise recommendations that can be
understood without having to read full journal articles.
For more information on the research funding available
throughout the various agencies that support education research, please
see:
Institute of Education Sciences
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
National Science Foundation
[back to top]
APA Names Summer Research Fellows in DoD
Counterintelligence
APA's Science Directorate and Public Policy Office are
pleased to announce the selection of Sujeeta Bhatt, PhD (Georgetown
University Medical Center) and Kathleen Pierce, MA (The Ohio State
University) as Summer Research Fellows in Department of Defense (DoD)
Counterintelligence. Bhatt and Pierce will spend eight weeks this summer
working in the Counterintelligence Field Activity Office (CIFA) of DoD,
headquartered in Washington, D.C. CIFA serves as the coordinating office
for DoD's counterintelligence activities, and the APA Fellows will work
with psychologists heading up the CIFA Behavioral Sciences Directorate on
research issues related to detection of deception and the impacts of
competing identities.
APA Cosponsors Drug Abuse Liability Conference
On April 19-20, APA cosponsored a conference entitled
"Impact of Drug Formulation on Abuse Liability, Safety, and
Regulatory Decisions" to examine a range of issues under exploration
by psychopharmacologists trying to limit the abuse liability of
medications by adjusting the formulation in which they are delivered. This
conference served as a follow-on to a conference held in October 2002
entitled "Abuse Liability Assessment of CNS Drugs", which set
forth a set of research priorities and addressed methodological issues
necessary to enhance the sensitivity and predictive validity of abuse
liability assessments. The proceedings of the first conference were
detailed in a Supplement to Drug and Alcohol Dependence (Volume 70, Issue
3 Supplement, 2003). Likewise, a series of commissioned papers will be
published from this conference in a future issue of DAD.
As with the previous conference, APA scientists were out
in force, including Drs. Robert Balster, Warren Bickel,
Harriet deWit, Roland Griffiths, Dorothy Hatsukami, Jack Henningfield,
Chris-Ellyn Johanson, and Chis Sannerud. APA Fellow and former NIDA
Director, Charles "Bob" Schuster, served as co-chair for the
conference.
View
speaker presentations from the conference (enter username: Drug
Formulation and password: CPDD)
[back to top]
Psychologists Talk up Basic Research at Latest Science
Advocacy Workshop Thirteen early-career psychologists came
to Washington April 30 through May 2, 2005, to talk with congressional
staff about why it's so important for the National Institutes of Health (NIH)
to support basic behavioral research. The workshop participants are
themselves basic researchers who are all less than ten years past their
doctoral degrees.
Read
the full article from the APA Science Directorate's Psychological
Science Agenda
[back to top]
NHTSA Alerted to Human Factors Research on Driver
Distraction
In an effort to increase awareness of driver distraction
research, Science Policy staff coordinated a joint letter sent to Dr. Jeffrey
Runge, Administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, on
May 3 to alert him to a body of research reported in the winter issue of Human
Factors (the journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society).
The letter puts four like-minded organizations on record as to
the importance of driver distraction research, noting that it is a serious
problem compounded by widespread misunderstanding of the central cognitive
mechanisms involved. Furthermore, a large and growing body of scientific
knowledge already exists that could and should be informing policy, but isn't.
And lastly, unanswered questions require additional investment in related
research, and research should be given a higher priority than it currently
receives.
Science Policy staff are using the letter as an entre to
recommend that congressional report language be included with the FY 2006
Transportation Appropriations bill suggesting that NHTSA collaborate with the
National Academies to study the issue further. On May 12, Geoff Mumford,
Director of Science Policy, accompanied Deborah Boehm-Davis, President of the
Division of Applied Experimental and Engineering Psychology, to meet with Senate
Appropriations staff and discuss the research. Dr. Boehm-Davis, who has been a
tireless advocate of human factors research, eloquently summarized much of the
research in the special section of Human Factors for which she had served as a
primary reviewer.
Read
the letter to Dr. Runge [PDF 80K]
Background
information [PDF 20K]
[back to top]
Congress Learns About Treatment Options
On May 4, APA's Science Policy Office sponsored a congressional briefing
entitled, "NIH Research in Action: Innovative Behavioral Treatments
for Mental and Substance Use Disorders". To educate congressional
staff about innovative treatments that have been developed with funding by
the National Institutes of Health (NIH), APA brought in psychologists
David H. Barlow, PhD, Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry, and
Director, Boston University Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders,
William R. Miller, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Psychology &
Psychiatry, University of New Mexico, and Kathleen M. Carroll, PhD,
Professor of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine.
Read
the full article
Any questions?
If you have any questions regarding SPIN or specific
science policy issues, please feel free to contact any of APA’s Science
PPO staff.
Geoff
Mumford, Ph.D., Director of Science Policy
Pat
Kobor, Senior Science Policy Analyst
Heather
O'Beirne Kelly, Ph.D., Senior Legislative and Federal Affairs Officer
Karen
Studwell, J.D., Legislative and Federal Affairs Officer
Sara
Robinson, Legislative Assistant
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