Alcoholism experts from around the United States will present their research at the 7th Annual Samuel B. Guze Symposium on Alcoholism at the Eric P. Newman Education Center from 8 a.m-5:30 p.m. Feb. 15.
This year’s event at the School of Medicine focuses on “Alcohol Use Across the Lifespan.”
The program is intended for physicians, psychologists, social workers, teachers, policymakers, other health professionals and members of the community. Participants may receive continuing medical education credits for attendance.
This year’s topics include alcohol’s effects on neural development and alcohol use among children and adolescents, in young adulthood, mid-life and among the geriatric population.
“Alcohol use is ubiquitous in our culture, and that creates a number of problems for people in various stages of life,” said Kathleen K. Bucholz, Ph.D., research professor of psychiatry and scientific co-director of the Midwest Alcoholism Research Center (MARC).
She is one of the organizers of this year’s symposium, along with Kenneth J. Sher, Ph.D., Curators’ Professor of Psychological Sciences at the University of Missouri-Columbia and scientific co-director of MARC.
Created by a grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), MARC is one of 18 Alcoholism Research Centers nationwide funded by the National Institutes of Health.
It is a multisite Alcohol Research Center that includes investigators not only from Washington University and the University of Missouri-Columbia but also from the Veterans Administration Palo Alto, Calif., and the Queensland Institute for Medical Research in Brisbane, Australia.
Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton and Larry J. Shapiro, M.D., executive vice chancellor for medical affairs and dean of the School of Medicine, will make introductory remarks.
Among this year’s speakers are Fulton T. Crews, Ph.D., professor of pharmacology and director of the Center for Alcohol Studies at the University of North Carolina; Robert A. Zucker, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry and psychology and director of the Addiction Research Center at the University of Michigan; and Allison A. Moore M.D., M.P.H., associate professor of medicine and psychiatry in the Division of Geriatrics at the University of California, Los Angeles.
The event is sponsored by MARC and the Office of Continuing Medical Education at the medical school, with funding from the NIAAA and an unrestricted education grant from Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc.
The symposium is dedicated to the late Samuel B. Guze, M.D., a pioneer in the medical model of psychiatric illness and the field of alcoholism research.
Guze served 18 years as vice chancellor for medical affairs and president of the Washington University Medical Center. He also was head of the Department of Psychiatry.
For information or to register, visit alcoholdependence.org or call Deb Hughes at 286-2244.