Our department supports a robust research portfolio, with most of this work conducted through the internationally renowned Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies (CAAS). 

Our research includes:

• Investigations to characterize the neurobiological and neurocognitive predictors and consequences of alcohol use

• Laboratory and ecological momentary assessment studies of the contextual factors, mechanisms, and consequences of alcohol use

• Longitudinal cohort studies

• Treatment development and treatment outcome studies;

• Studies of pharmacotherapy for alcohol use disorder, including pharmacotherapies with adolescents

• Early intervention research.  

A significant body of work has focused on comorbidity, particularly the comorbidity of alcohol with cannabis use, affective and other mental disorders, and cigarette smoking. 

Adolescent use is another focus of our research, including etiology and brief interventions for adolescent alcohol misuse. Extensive treatment studies involve a variety of populations with particular emphasis on adolescents, college students, patients in substance use treatment programs, incarcerated populations, and emergency department patients. Many of these studies employ modern communication technologies, including text messaging, to deliver behavioral interventions. 

Through the Alcohol Research Center on HIV, BSS faculty collaborate on programmatic research on the biobehavioral interactions of alcohol use and HIV infection. This research examines neurobiology of alcohol use in people living with HIV, the role of alcohol use on HIV transmission, and interventions to address alcohol use in people living with HIV and those at high risk for HIV infection.