Report on NCRG's 2002 Annual Conference

Howard Shaffer opened the 2002 conference by asking the audience: "Why are you here?"  He noted that the conference was not "promising the brass ring of treatment protocols" or the "golden goose of research methods." "Perhaps some of you," Shaffer wondered, "are dissatisfied with the current conceptual status of "addiction" and are open to a "rethinking" of addictive disorders. The lively dialogue that followed during the two-day conference proved that the 300 attendees - a record number for the annual conference - had come to Las Vegas for a serious consideration of how increasing recognition of behavioral disorders such as pathological gambling is calling into question traditional views of addiction.

The conference faculty represented a spectrum of disciplines, including history, psychology, psychiatry, public health, and neuroscience. Abstracts of all faculty presentations and several PowerPoint presentations are available online at the Web site of the Institute for Research on Pathological Gambling and Related Disorders, a co-sponsor of the conference. Go to www.hms.harvard.edu/doa/institute, then click on "Annual Conference."

Conference activities included a poster session featuring 17 papers focused on the theme of "Rethinking Addiction." The review committee selected "Common genetic vulnerability for pathological gambling, nicotine dependence and drug dependence in men" as the outstanding poster. Abstracts of all the posters also are available online. As always, the poster session offered an opportunity for both new and senior investigators to showcase their research.

Evaluations submitted by the attendees rated the conference highly in terms of content, presentation, conference site and logistics. In response to the question "How does this conference compare with other educational programs on the topic?" 54 percent rated "Rethinking Addiction" as above average and 32 percent as superior.