Consortium on Stress, Self-Control & Addiction

The Interdisciplinary Research Consortium on Stress, Self-Control and Addiction (IRCSSA) brings together over 50 leading scientists, representing 20 disciplines, 5 schools (Medicine, Arts and Sciences, Management, Nursing and Public Health) and three academic institutions (Yale University, University of California-Irvine and Florida State University). These researchers are collaborating to gain a greater understanding of stress and self-control mechanisms in addiction in order to develop new prevention and treatment strategies to enhance self-control, and decrease addictive behaviors.

Stress, Self-Control and Addiction: Interdisciplinary Research and Education (NIDA R25)

Mission: This R25 serves as the research and educational structure for the Interdisciplinary Research Consortium on Stress, Self-Control and Addiction (IRCSSA) which unites the interdisciplinary projects for over 50 leading scientists with expertise in the interplay of stress, self-control and addictive behaviors.

The goals of the R25 component of the IRCSSA are to develop and implement educational programs and initiatives that:

• foster and enhance the process of conducting team science and
• produce outcomes which advance a new interdisciplinary conceptualization of how stress decreases self-control and facilitates addictive behaviors.

These goals are accomplished by developing and implementing:

• theme-based interdisciplinary Work Groups that integrate research strategies across the consortium
• a Core Seminar Series and Inter-Laboratory Faculty and Postdoctoral Training Programs that facilitate scientific interaction and training in new disciplines
• mentoring programs and institutional review processes that overcome obstacles to career development in interdisciplinary team science, and
• training and dissemination strategies that guide IRCSSA scientists in the rapid translation of research findings to the community and to those developing public policy.

The R25 interacts with all projects within the consortium, and uses an empirically-derived model of team science. The objectives of the R25 are to advance interdisciplinary interaction and education with regard to the interplay of stress, self-control and addiction, to expand emerging educational and academic processes that recognize and foster team science, and to facilitate the translation of new findings into practice and policy with the goal of reducing the significant morbidity and mortality associated with the target addictive behaviors of smoking, drinking and overeating.