NIAAA: National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism

The NIAAA is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

It was established in 1970 when Congress passed the “Comprehensive Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Prevention Treatment and Rehabilitation Act”. Sponsored by Iowa Senator Harold Hughes, Bill Wilson testified in support of its passage.

(Am I boring you already? Check out the “Why would I care about the NIAAA?” page.)

To put things in a 1970 perspective, consider that:

• Distribution of the Big Book, first published in 1939, crossed the one million mark in the early 70s, making average annual sales over its first three decades under 30,000. (Total distribution would hit 5 million in 1985, 10 million in 1991, and 20 million in the late 1990s.)
• Betty Ford’s journey into recovery was still eight years away.
• The Mary Tyler Moore Show hit the airwaves in 1970, and the booze bottle Lou Grant kept in the bottom drawer of his desk remained a comic fixture throughout the show’s 7-year run.
• The 1964 Grand Rapids Study suggested that BAC levels as low as .04 could impair driving safety, but DUI thresholds remained as high as .15.
• The founding of MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) happened a decade later, in 1980.
• Dedicated alcoholism treatment centers were few. Before the Betty Ford Center center could open in 1982, California statutes had to be changed to permit the first non-hospital-based alcoholism treatment center to operate.

The NIAAA’s history page notes that the National Council on Alcoholism (NCA), formed in 1944 by Marty Mann, the American Medical Association (AMA), World Health Organization (WHO), and the American Psychiatric Association were all devoting some resources to alcohol issues. And yet,

By the 1960’s the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) in the U.S. Public Health Service had begun a very small program of grants in the alcohol area, leading to the establishment in 1965 of the National Center for the Prevention and Control of Alcohol Problems. The Center, however, had limited program authority and a limited budget. The situation with research was even more dismal. As asserted by the Cooperative Commission on the Study of Alcoholism in its 1967 report:

“Additional information about the nature and causes of problem drinking is urgently needed. Past research in this area has been uneven and sporadic…. While special attention to alcohol problems is currently required … research in this field cannot be developed in isolation from investigations of a basic science nature and those on other medical and psycho-social problems (Plaut 1967, pp. 50 and 52).”

There was a general feeling among advocates that the only way to sway public opinion and to address comprehensively alcohol abuse and alcoholism was from the national level through a highly placed and therefore highly visible Federal organization.

Today, the budget for the NIAAA is in the $400M range, per its 2005 Budget (908K PDF, page 4):

Its mission statement includes:

NIAAA provides leadership in the national effort to reduce alcohol-related problems by:

• Conducting and supporting research in a wide range of scientific areas including genetics, neuroscience, epidemiology, health risks and benefits of alcohol consumption, prevention, and treatment
• Coordinating and collaborating with other research institutes and Federal Programs on alcohol-related issues
• Collaborating with international, national, state, and local institutions, organizations, agencies, and programs engaged in alcohol-related work
• Translating and disseminating research findings to health care providers, researchers, policymakers, and the public

The NIAAA’s website includes a reasonably robust search function, giving ordinary folks access to evidence, research, and clinical approaches to alcohol issues.

The site includes a database page with links to several online resources for looking up alcohol-related data.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH), founded in 1887:

is the Federal focal point for medical research in the United States. The NIH, comprising 27 separate Institutes and Centers, is one of eight health agencies of the Public Health Service which, in turn, is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services..

Simply described, the goal of NIH research is to acquire new knowledge to help prevent, detect, diagnose, and treat disease and disability, from the rarest genetic disorder to the common cold. The NIH mission is to uncover new knowledge that will lead to better health for everyone. NIH works toward that mission by:

• conducting research in its own laboratories;
• supporting the research of non-Federal scientists in universities, medical schools, hospitals, and research institutions throughout the country and abroad;
• helping in the training of research investigators; and
• fostering communication of medical and health sciences information.