New-to-me but very helpful visualizations how all the actions of the past ten months are affecting the CDC www.cdcdataproject.org

If you didn't know, now you know! Hand raised here...

Do a mediation analysis or don't. It doesn't really matter to me. But if you are going to, at least properly deal with random measurement error. It is now super easy to do so in PROCESS as of version 5.0. No more excuses. link.springer.com/article/10.3...

RSA Members Join Us today at 4 pm ET/1 pm PT for the Advocacy Webinar Link: hubs.ly/Q03L_JjH0

“Kids who experience discrimination are dealing with stressors that others might not face,” @browncaas.bsky.social Professor @rosalesr.bsky.social says. “If a young person lacks coping strategies...they might turn to less healthy ways of coping—such as alcohol or tobacco.”

An excellent, succinct summary for what is at stake for science when DEI programs are attacked and dismantled. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

It just keeps going! #NoKings #pvd

Peace and patriotism in Providence. #NoKings

Let's march PVD! #NoKings

Lots of folks at the RI State House ready to re-ratify the Constitution. #NoKings

Thank you again to today’s CAAS Rounds speaker, Dr. Justin Berk, for a great conversation on the links between substance use, health equity, and incarceration. CAAS Rounds resumes next week with Dr. Maha Mian. Hope to see you there!

Ditto!

Are flies a good model to discover and investigate mechanisms of treatments for alcohol use disorder? We validated known treatments and suggest a potential new treatment: gamma secretase inhibitors.

CHEARR is excited to announce funding for pilot projects focused on recovery support services for emerging adults with opioid use disorder! Apply now for up to $30,000 in funding. Click here to learn more:  https://tinyurl.com/chearrpilot

I highly recommend this webinar for learning essential skills we need to defend and promote our science. It does take an extra step to get registered on TPN, but then you have it done for all future RSA webinars and CE opportunities.

New in Alcohol & Alcoholism: a review of Dry January finds consistent benefits — reduced drinking, better biomarkers, & potentially higher well-being. @meganstrowgerphd.bsky.social (CAAS alum), @sqcolby.bsky.social (CAAS), Matthew Meisel (CAAS), Sarah Uriarte 🔗 academic.oup.com/alcalc/artic...

Yes, we argue vociferously, backed by empirical research, that patients’ wellbeing and health outcomes will suffer from the Trump administration’s push to end DEI policies at US medical schools

📢 Advocacy Training Webinar RSA MEMBERS ONLY: October 29, 2025 at 4 PM ET ✅Learn how to advocate for alcohol science, public health, and funding. ✅Get tools to engage with your local representatives in DC & your community. 👉 Sign up today and be part of the movement. hubs.ly/Q03L_JjH0

Insightful analysis of effective e-cigarette control polices that balance "two competing public health goals: harm reduction for adults who use tobacco in its most lethal (combustible) form and prevention of all tobacco product use among youth."

🎓 The RSA Doctoral Student Small Grants provide $5,000 (for one year) to help you carry out your project. 🏆 Submit a 1-page Letter of Intent (LOI) first; selected LOIs will be invited to submit full proposals. Learn more & apply: researchsocietyonalcohol.org/doctoral-stu...

Outstanding deep analysis of NIAAA FY25 funding! Not a huge drop-off in new R01s but a major hit to R21s and R34s. "TC_25"=FY25, "Ratio"=TC_25 / TC_24, "N_24"=# of awards FY24, "N_25"= # of awards FY25, "Ratio_N" = N_25 / N_24, "N_24_new"=# new awards FY24, "N_25_new" =# of new awards FY25.

Upcoming grant submissions may not go through, because no one is maintaining grants.gov Hypothetically there is info at www.hhs.gov

NIAAA with the last minute heroics brings it across the line for FY2025.

I hope this catches on. 22 CDC websites are down. All are LGBTQ/DEI related. We are not free. When science is silenced, we all pay the price. Science has been censored in the past. Like before, it will not end well. 🧪 open.substack.com/pub/insideme...

If you interact with the media for a story related to substance use, ask to see their draft story so you can provide feedback on potentially stigmatizing language. We all need to do our part to fight stigma around substance use disorders. Media matters. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

"There is no new science here," Dean @ashishkjha.bsky.social says. "Bobby Kennedy said that he wanted to get to the root cause of autism by September—he's found what I think is a convenient scape goat. But the harm is going to be for pregnant women across the country."

Results show that interventions can significantly reduce the odds of unhealthy alcohol use in people with HIV, as assessed by either self-report or phosphatidylethanol, as well as by the combination of both, which seems a particularly promising method. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

What a difference when sci/health journalists cover sci topics (even highly politicized ones). With the increased politicization of sci over the yrs, the standard political journalism practice of both-sides-ing is unhelpful for reporting a story--can help legitimate/amp un-/poorly-supported claims.

#NIAAA is now up to 47 R01s funded this year, which is a massive acceleration from three weeks ago. About 20% (n=9) are multi-year awards. Unfortunately, each reduces the funds available for other new awards in FY25 by 2 to 4 R01-sized awards. Still no R34s in FY25 compared to 13 in FY24.

Took leave this afternoon to deliver a letter from nearly 900 (and growing) current and former Feds asking Congress to pass a continuing resolution that ends executive overreach and protects the American people. Join us! Feds and fed allies welcomed to sign. actionnetwork.org/forms/civil-...

Happy #NationalRecoveryMonth! Team members from the Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies at Brown University were happy to attend Providence's 22nd #Rally4Recovery last weekend for connection, celebration & community! Thanks to @ricares.bsky.social#NationalRecoveryMonth#Rally4Recoveryor organizing such a fun event! #RecoveryMonth

The pre-print of team meta-analysis project led by Dr. Judith Hahn is now available. We find similar small, significant intervention effects on alcohol use in PWH when using either PEth or self-report. Combined PEth/self-report appears a useful primary outcome. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

This brings NIAAA up to 22 new R01 (and one type 2) for FY2025. They issued 65 Type 1 and 18 Type 2 in FY2024. Two weeks still to go to award more new grants. Somewhere between 60 single year to 15 four-year multi are currently missing.

Vaccines work. Period.

🎙️ Listen now to Professor Brendan Saloner's discussion on the #healthpodyssey podcast of his new paper "Scaling Up Treatment and Harm Reduction Programs to Reach More People Who Would Benefit."⤵️

My word! This sums it up.

Director Bhattacharya says there are no banned words at the NIH. The data suggest otherwise.

My word. If making up citations as evidence qualifies as rigorous, transparent science, then okay. A revolution indeed!

From an #NIAAA perspective, out of the paltry 13 R01s funded so far this year by NIAAA, 2 are multi-year awards (15.4%), and those are very recent. Hopefully, this is not how the rest of their $ are used this year, since it will further depress the number of new NIAAA projects.

From @prep4allnow.bsky.social: $2B in HIV cuts up for vote TODAY. We're talking about programs that literally keep people alive. These cuts would eliminate federal funding for all HIV-prevention programs and gut $525 million from the Ryan White Program for people w/ HIV. Contact Congress below!

"Increasingly, I wonder whether we will be able to do science here in the future." NIH employees I heard from say things are very grim over there, but they welcome the push for a "fighting CR" to rein Trump in — or a government shutdown if not.

“The key message is that drinking two drinks a day may be moderate from a social perspective, but when it comes to health, it’s a pretty risky amount." CISUR's Tim Naimi in @nytimes.com. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/05/h...

“The American public deserves to know what they’re putting in their body and what kind of health outcomes they can cause.” www.nytimes.com/2025/09/05/h...

Some movement in the right direction, but the distance to make up is truly immense. 66 new R01s in FY24, so 53 short with 3 weeks to go. This extends to early career awards. 39 new F31s in FY24 compared to just 5 so far in FY25.

Wow. Love this.

Short summary: this is... "...yet another sign that health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will not add alcohol to his list of “Make America Healthy Again” priorities, despite robust evidence that heavy drinking is a major driver of disease and death in the U.S." www.statnews.com/2025/09/04/f...

Just your daily reminder that Trump voters don't deserve measles or cancer or to lose their health insurance. We all deserve a government that protects and promotes our health. Shaming and blaming, pushes people away, pushes away the people we most need to reach.

The numbers for #NIAAA are especially bleak. No new (Type 1) NIAAA awards posted on Reporter last week. With 4 weeks to go, there is an immense amount of ground to make up to ensure that novel alcohol research is supported and investigators can support their work, their staff and trainees.

Agreed. The other key detail to monitor in the #NIH budget discussions is the new turn to multi-year funding, which could devastate funding lines for new awards and vastly curtail the total amount of new research the United States conducts.