Lisa A. Marsch, PhD, Invited Keynote Speaker at Annual DEA Conference
Dr. Lisa Marsch, a Senior Principal Investigator at NDRI, was invited
to
provide the keynote address on "Adolescent Opiate Use: Recent Trends,
Characteristics and Effective Treatments" at the annual meeting
of the Drug
Enforcement Administration (DEA) held in Long Branch, New Jersey on
March 4, 2005. Heroin and other opiate use among youth was the main
topic of this year's meeting, and Dr. Marsch was asked to provide the
most up to date information from scientific research
with this young age group. This meeting was co-sponsored by the New
Jersey Prevention Network, NJ Department of Human Services, NJ State
Police, NJ National Guard and Saint Barnabas Health Care Systems.
The prevalence of heroin and other opiate use among adolescents has
markedly increased in the past decade. Despite these trends, little
scientific research has characterized this emerging population of opioid-abusing
youth. In her presentation, Dr. Marsch provided an overview of what
it known to date about this young population. She also presented an
overview of her novel scientific research funded by the National Institute
on Drug Abuse (NIDA) in which she is developing and evaluating various
treatments for opioid-dependent youth, including behavioral therapy
and pharmacological treatment with buprenorphine medication. The New
Jersey location of the meeting was particularly germane, given that
New Jersey has the highest purity of heroin in the U.S. (according to
DEA Domestic Monitoring Program data) and is one of many states experiencing
high rates of heroin and other opiate abuse among youth.
March, 2005