Epidemiology and Prevention of Addiction

Head

Dr. Amin-Esmaeili, MD, MPH, is Assistant Professor of Psychiatry. Her postdoctoral project was "Iranian National Mental Health Survey: Prevalence, severity and costs of mental disorders and service utilization (IranMHS)". She was involved in several qualitative, quantitative studies and systematic reviews in the field of mental health and addiction.

Staff

Members:

Afarin Rahimi-Movaghar, MD, MPH, Professor of Psychiatry

Behrang Shadloo, MD, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry

Jaleh Gholami, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology

Robert Farnam, MD, Psychiatrist, Principal Investigator of Behavioral Addiction Program

Reza Ghorban Gahromi, PhD, Educational Psychology, Post-Doctorate on Prevention Program

Anousheh Safarcherati, MD, Psychiatrist

Leila Hosseini, MS, Research Officer

Collaborators:

James G Kahn, Professor In Residence, Step 3; Epidemiology & Biostatistics; School of Medicine University of California, San Francisco, Affiliated Professor of INCAS

Ramin Mojtabai, Professor, Department of Mental Health, Bloomberg School of Public Health with joint appointment in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Affiliated Professor of INCAS

Vandad Sharifi, MD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, collaborator

Ahmad Hajebi, MD, MPH, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Head of Psycho-Social and Addiction Bureau of MoH, collaborator

Abbas Motevalian, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Epidemiology, collaborator

Alireza Noroozi, Psychiatrist, Head of Addiction Office of Ministry of Health

Maral Mardaneh, PhD student of Addiction Studies

Kamyar Ghani, PhD student of Addiction Studies

Hossein Rafie Manesh, PhD student of Epidemiology

Vision

  • Establishing a dynamic and avant-garde group in the field of epidemiology of substance use disorders, providing scientific grounds for policy makers, program developers, academic institutes and other researchers in this field

Objectives

  • Setting up a system of production and dissemination of knowledge, assessment of situation and changes in patterns of substance and alcohol use in the country
  • Providing epidemiological data regarding substance and alcohol use disorder, their associated factors and providing proper methods to monitor them
  • Promotion of research methods and science production regarding addiction
  • Developing addiction prevention interventions

Research Areas and Selected Key Activities

Organizing Research Data in the Country

  • National and global scientormetric study on substance use disorders
  • National plan for research on illegal drugs and its precursors (2014-2018)
  • Development a matrix for mental health research: setting the priorities of addiction research
  • Conducting a series of systematic reviews on: prevalence and patterns of substance use among different target groups, prevalence of blood-borne infections among people who use drugs, systematic reviews on pharmacological maintenance therapy and managing opium withdrawal symptoms
  • Translation and validation of research instruments in the field of addiction and mental health: screening for substance and alcohol use (AUDIT,ASSIST, K6 and K10)
  • Implementing cost-effectiveness data in policy making (Global Health Decision program): assessing cost-effectiveness evidence regarding prevention, harm reduction and treatment approaches, impact of interventions on DALY, providing web-based models for accessing data for policy makers

Epidemiological Studies

  • Iranian Mental Health Survey 2010-2011 (IranMHS-I): prevalence, severity, cost of psychiatric disorders (including substance and alcohol use disorder) and service utilization and cost of services
  • Assessment of situation and response of drug use and its harm in the Middle East and North Africa
  • Direct and indirect estimation of substance use among university students
  • Mental health in different groups: survivors of Bam earthquake, blue-laborers of South Pars and Asaluyeh
  • Persian Youth Cohort (PYC): prevalence, incidence, predisposing and protective factors, course and prognostic factors in common psychiatric disorders (including drug and alcohol use disorders)
  • The 2nd Iranian Mental Health Survey (IranMHS-II): prevalence, severity and cost of psychiatric disorders including substance and alcohol use disorder and service utilization

Prevention Studies

  • Addiction prevention program for high school students: development of manuals and implementation study
  • Use of media campaign for prevention of stimulant use among youth

Service Development and Assessment

  • Geographical Information System (GIS) for addiction treatment services
  • Evaluation of outcome measures of mandatory treatment program for addiction
  • Integration of alcohol treatment and harm reduction programs in the primary health-care system

Behavioral Addiction

  • Epidemiological data on prevalence and associated factors of behavioral addiction
  • Symptomatology of behavior addiction and validation of proper assessment tools
  • Motivations and associated factors of online gaming
  • Developing a protocol for safe cyber use