NIDA Home > About NIDA > Organization > DPMCDA Home  

Division of Pharmacotherapies and Medical Consequences of Drug Abuse (DPMCDA)


The Addiction Treatment Discovery Program

Mission Statement: To discover potential pharmacological treatments for substance abuse, with an emphasis on relapse prevention, in humans through preclinical testing and evaluation of compounds.

The ATDP accepts compounds from specific pharmacological classes and for which there is preliminary data. Compounds of known pharmacology are profiled in relevant animal models, which will vary depending upon the compound's mechanism of action. Because of the focus on relapse prevention as a clinical endpoint, the program has a number of reinstatement models using different drugs of abuse. The ATDP has increased resources to evaluate compounds in models of relapse to cocaine, heroin or methamphetamine, using stress, conditioned cues, or drug primes to produce reinstatement in rats whose self-administration behavior has been extinguished. Compound testing is shaped by existing data in rodents and the sequence of testing is determined in collaboration with the compound submitter.

Compound Testing: The ATDP uses several decision-trees for testing, depending upon the compound mechanism. The following screening and profiling protocols are available:
  • Locomotor Activity acute and timecourse tests (mice)
  • Drug Discrimination acute and timecourse tests by several routes of administration (rats and/or primates)
  • Self-Administration (rats and/or primates)
  • Stress - or Conditioned Cues, or Drug-Priming-Induced Reinstatement (rats)

In addition, established tests that could be selected for a particular compound include in vitro receptor assays as well as a series of predictive toxicology tests, such as the hERG channel assay to predict QT prolongation and the Spot Ames test to predict mutagenicity. As necessary, additional animal models may be established.

Compound testing is conducted free of charge to compound submitters through an array of NIDA contracts and interagency agreements. Compounds are tested under blinded conditions and test results are forwarded to compound submitters, who retain all publication rights to the data.


Program Contact

David White, Ph.D., Director, ATDP
NIDA Addiction Treatment Discovery Program
(301) 443-8889


DPMCDA Index

About NIDA Contents