SCANNER AIDS OHSU DRUG ABUSE STUDY

PORTLAND - Oregon is expanding a federal research program into drug abuse
with a powerful new brain scanner, whose funding was announced Wednesday,
that doctors hope will help find the genetic pathways leading to addiction.

State officials joined Al Brandenstein, chief scientist for the Office of
National Drug Control Policy, to announce a $4 million federal grant to
build one of the nation's most powerful magnetic resonance imaging devices
at Oregon Health Sciences University.

An MRI uses an extremely strong magnetic field to create images of
structures deep inside the body, including the brain. An MRI scan is
painless and noninvasive, similar to an X-ray, but without any radiation.
It also can reveal much more detail.

The Oregon project is one of a dozen around the country to pool research
efforts into drug abuse, and one of only four with advanced MRI scanners
dedicated to research into addiction. The most powerful MRI machine in the
nation dedicated to drug abuse research is at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Brandenstein said the program has helped government policy-makers
understand that addiction is a disease and should be treated as a medical
problem, rather than a crime.

"These aren't bad people, they are people who suffer from a disease," he said.

The Oregon scanner, which will not be quite as powerful as the machine at
Massachusetts General, will be used for research into the effects of
anabolic steroids, methamphetamine and cocaine. It also will be used to
find the genes that researchers suspect play a major role in addiction.

"The imaging center will be of great benefit to scientists spanning
multiple disciplines," said Jeri Janowsky, an OHSU neurology researcher.

She said scientists expect to quickly find ways for doctors to use the
research to help patients, especially teens who abuse steroids to enhance
their athletic performance, or to reduce methamphetamine addiction, a
problem that is especially serious in Oregon and other Western states.

"This is technology that can be transferred directly to the clinics,"
Janowsky said.

MRI scanners have already shown researchers how brain activity differs
under the influence of various drugs, giving them a better understanding of
the chemical processes that underlie addiction.

Brandenstein said controlling drug abuse will be much easier for doctors,
especially psychiatrists dealing with seriously addicted patients, when
they have ways to manage brain chemistry to end the abuse or even prevent it.

Completion of the Oregon MRI research center is expected in 2003.