October 8, 2007

Relax, a large grant is
funding stress research

A new $23.4 million grant supporting 14 projects in multiple disciplines will propel research
into the connections among stress, self-control, substance abuse and addiction.

Rajita Sinha is director of the
Yale Research Program on Stress, Addiction and Psychopathology
and PI of a $23.4 million
Roadmap grant.

It’s a familiar cinematic cliché: the hero steels himself for the ordeal he’s about to face by downing a stiff drink. Either that or he belts one back to calm his nerves after the dust settles. 

We know stress and addiction are locked in a codependent marriage, but now, a team of scientists from Yale is studying why and how stress fuels addiction. The National Institutes of Health has awarded the Yale School of Medicine a five-year $23.4 million grant to study the interactive effects of stress and self-control on tobacco smoking, excessive drinking and overeating.

The research group, known as the Interdisciplinary Research Consortium on Stress, Self-Control and Addiction, is made up of 60 scientists -- psychiatrists, neuroscientists, social psychologists, clinical medicine, communications and policy experts as well as scientists from two collaborating institutions, the University of California at Irvine and Florida State University. The consortium is headed by Rajita Sinha, professor of psychiatry and director of the Yale Research Program on Stress, Addiction and Psychopathology. It is headquartered at the new Yale Stress Center, which is housed at the Yale Medical School Building at 2 Church Street South. .  

Sinha says that although stress has been clearly linked to illness, its effects on self-control and addiction have not yet been fully explained. The consortium is working on 14 projects aimed at finding new ways to fight the powerful cravings that make treating food and drug additions so difficult.  It makes sense to study stress in an interdisciplinary way, Sinha says, because, in one way or another, it affects every organ system in the body.

One project that researchers are planning is an analysis of how events that occur early in life affect the developing brain and how that shapes someone’s ability to deal with stress later on. Others will use neuroimaging to illuminate how the brain changes when it’s under stress. Still more will explore the effectiveness of pharmacological agents to ease stress and improve self-control. In addition to these studies, researchers also will conduct surveys and genetic studies to determine who is most likely to be vulnerable to stress.

The researchers expect more than 1,300 subjects to be directly involved in the studies. Through collaborations with community health centers and an interactive website, they expect their work to reach many more people. They will also arrange a lecture series as well as hold an annual meeting on the topic of stress and addiction to call attention to the topic.

Yale was one of nine institutions from among 100 applicants to receive this interdisciplinary research grant as part of the NIH as part of its Roadmap for Medical Research initiative.

“We’re moving into a period of individualized medicine,” says Sinha. “By providing specific information on new ways to improve one’s sense of control in the face of stress, the hope is that people can learn how best to address the stress in their lives and make lifestyle choices that promote health.”

The stress center web site is stress.yale.edu. You can contact them at  stress@yale.edu or by calling (203) 974-7353.  

—Jennifer Kaylin

Photo by Terry Dagradi

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