Estimates of the total costs of substance abuse in the United States, including productivity and health-and crime-related costs, exceed $600 billion annually (approximately $181 billion for illicit drugs, $193 billion for tobacco, and $235 billion for alcohol). Twenty-five percent of all US deaths can be attributed to drug abuse. Alcohol, the most commonly used drug among American teenagers, kills youth 6.5 times more often than other drugs of abuse. In general, a yearly death toll of nearly 10,000 can be attributed to chronic alcohol abuse. Drug consumption of all types generally begins in adolescence; by 13 years of age more than 30% of teens report having used at least one illicit substance. As staggering as these numbers are, they do not fully describe the breadth of corollary destructive public health and safety implications, such as family disintegration, loss of employment, failure in school, domestic violence, and child abuse.Hundreds of millions of research dollars have been spent on preventive intervention programs aimed at curbing drug abuse and addiction. At the National Institute of Health alone, more than $1.6 billion was spent in 2010 on substance abuse, exceeding expenditures for any other neurobehavioral disease. Despite this enormous amount of scholarly effort, most prevention research has neither focused on nor sought to ameliorate generative and oftentimes malleable underlying mechanisms (e.g., neurocognition) in drug abuse and addiction or the related psychopathology. A significant problem is the lack of communication among scientists investigating disparate aspects of the substance abuse issue. Transfer of information between disciplines has been slow; no major innovations in prevention have occurred for decades. As a result, although some recipients of preventive interventions (e.g., school-based programs) may achieve some measure of success, many others respond less favorably, exhibiting an escalation of drug-related disorders, chronic relapses, lack of engagement in interventions, and persistent intervention resistance. Moreover, policy makers and practitioners lack the knowledge base and resources to design programs that can have meaningful impacts. Forming teams composed of investigators from multiple disciplines that span the pathway from basic science to applied research and practice will facilitate the translation of findings to the next phase of inquiry, thus promoting a more rapid response to these issues than has been achieved in the past.This research brief highlights the relevance and utility of promoting a transdisciplinary translational model as the foundation for the next generation of research on substance abuse, including tobacco, alcohol, illicit drugs, and illegitimate use of prescription drugs. The model integrates theoretical perspectives and empirical methods to (1) elucidate the Key Research OpportunitiesTranslational research in substance abuse conducted by transdisciplinary teams affords better opportunities to parse the complex web of factors affecting successful ...

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In this essay, the author describes how trauma has led not only to physical ailments, including cancer, but also greater appreciation of her body and life.