Pharmacological research on addictions: a framework for ethical and policy considerations

Findings from neuroscience research hold promise for improved treatments for and prevention of substance use disorders (SUD), but ethical concerns about psychopharmacological research involving SUD may potentially undermine scientific progress. This article reviews the literature pertaining to seven ethical requirements that elucidate a coherent framework for evaluating the ethics of clinical SUD research protocols. Those requirements are social or scientific value, scientific validity, fair subject selection, favorable risk-benefit ratio, independent review, informed consent, and respect for potential or enrolled subjects. An evidence-based analysis suggests that sound pharmacological research in SUD can safeguard the welfare of research participants while collecting valuable scientific data and benefiting society.

The relations of trait anxiety, anxiety sensitivity, and sensation seeking to adolescents' motivations for alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use

The present study investigated relations of anxiety sensitivity and other theoretically relevant personality factors to Copper's [Psychological Assessment 6 (1994) 117.] four categories of substance use motivations as applied to teens' use of alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana. A sample of 508 adolescents (238 females, 270 males; mean age = 15.1 years) completed the Trait subscale of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children, the Childhood Anxiety Sensitivity Index (CASI), and the Intensity and Novelty subscales of the Arnett Inventory of Sensation Seeking. Users of each substance also completed the Drinking Motives Questionnaire-Revised (DMQ-R) and/or author-compiled measures for assessing motives for cigarette smoking and marijuana use, respectively. Multiple regression analyses revealed that, in the case of each drug, the block of personality variables predicted "risky" substance use motives (i.e., coping, enhancement, and/or conformity motives) over-and-above demographics. High intensity seeking and low anxiety sensitivity predicted enhancement motives for alcohol use, high anxiety sensitivity predicted conformity motives for alcohol and marijuana use, and high trait anxiety predicted coping motives for alcohol and cigarette use. Moreover, anxiety sensitivity moderated the relation between trait anxiety and coping motives for alcohol and cigarette use: the trait anxiety-coping motives relation was stronger for high, than for low, anxiety sensitive individuals. Implications of the findings for improving substance abuse prevention efforts for youth will be discussed.