Litten appointed director of NIAAA's DTR

Abstract

Raye Z. Litten, Ph.D., has been appointed director of the Division of Treatment and Recovery (DTR) at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). Litten joined NIAAA in 1989 and previously served as associate director of the Division of Treatment and Recovery Research, acting director of the Division of Medications Development, and acting director of the Division of Treatment and Recovery Research. As DTR Director, Litten leads a broad program of extramural clinical research that focuses on improving treatments for alcohol use disorder (AUD), increasing the use and uptake of such treatments in real‐world settings, and understanding the process of recovery from AUD. During his tenure at NIAAA, Litten has been instrumental in expanding NIAAA's medications development research program. He helped establish the NIAAA's Clinical Investigations Group, a network of clinical sites that conducts proof‐of‐concept, phase II clinical trials of promising AUD medications. He also was key in establishing NIAAA's human laboratory program to efficiently screen compounds for safety and effectiveness prior to clinical trial testing, helping to overcome the “valleys of death” in medications development. Litten has also worked to promote the combined use of behavioral and medication treatments and to strengthen NIAAA's biomarkers and health services research portfolios. “I am grateful for this opportunity to continue to play an active role in this vital part of NIAAA's portfolio of research and research translation,” said Litten, who also praised the agency's newly published definition of recovery (see page 5).