Brief Description
Members of the military are not immune to the substance use problems that affect the rest of society. Indeed, the unique culture of the military and the unique stresses of deployment during wartime create unique problems. And even though illicit drug use is lower among military personnel than among civilians, heavy alcohol and tobacco use, and especially prescription drug abuse, are much more prevalent and on the rise.
Friends of NIDA Congressional Briefing
March 11, 2013: Washington, D.C. - Military Personnel, Veterans, and Their Families: How Substance Abuse Research is Effecting Positive Change, hosted by the Friends of NIDA in conjunction with the Congressional Addiction, Treatment and Recovery Caucus and the Congressional Caucus on Prescription Drug Abuse.
Slide Presentations:
- How Substance Abuse Research is Effecting Positive Change (PDF, 2.3 MB) - Dr. Wilson Compton, NIDA
- Evaluation of a Web-Enhanced Parenting Program for Military Families: After Deployment, Adaptive Parenting Tools/ADAPT (PDF, 590 KB) - Dr. Abigail Gewirtz, University of Minnesota
- Military Personnel, Veterans and their Families: How Substance Abuse Treatment Research is Effecting Positive Change (PDF, 1.3 MB) - Dr. Kathleen Carroll, Yale University School of Medicine
Related Publications
Related Resources
- Addressing Drug Abuse in the Armed Forces (Messages From the Director, November 2012)
- Substance Use Disorders in the U.S. Armed Forces (Report from the Institute of Medicine, September 17, 2012)
- Army Study to Assess Risk and Resilience in Servicemembers (STARRS), an collaboration of Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS), the University of California, San Diego, University of Michigan, Harvard Medical School, and NIMH.
- Substance Abuse Among Troops, Veterans, and Their Families (Directors Perspective, NIDA Notes, November 2009)
Press/Media Releases
Current Research Findings
- Helping military families through the deployment process: Strategies to support parenting
- Posttraumatic stress symptoms among National Guard soldiers deployed to Iraq: Associations with parenting behaviors and couple adjustment
- Alcohol use after combat-acquired traumatic brain injury: What we know and don't know
- Military Combat Deployments and Substance Use: Review and Future Directions
Featured Publication
Drugs, Brains, and Behavior - The Science of Addiction
As a result of scientific research, we know that addiction is a disease that affects both brain and behavior.