Preface to the Special Issue

Abstract

It is a pleasure for us to introduce the Proceedings of the Satellite Symposium on Nicotine and Alcohol of The 10th Congress of the International Society for Biomedical Research on Alcoholism (ISBRA). The Satellite Symposium was held in Yokohama, Japan, on July 8, 2000. Leading scientists from around the world whose research efforts have focused on nicotine in the tobacco habit and drug dependence participated in the Satellite Symposium. There were 13 papers presented at the meeting, and 12 of those 13 papers are included in this Special Issue. These papers covered most of the major areas of biomedical research on nicotine effect and dependence. The Symposium was structured around three themes: nicotine and brain function, clinical studies on smoking, and biological mechanisms of drug dependence. Both the molecular and genetic mechanisms of, and the differences in clinical features associated with, nicotine dependence, as well as those of other drugs of dependence, were presented and discussed. Both lectures and question-and-answer sessions were stimulating and enlightening. We are grateful to all participants for the excellence of their contributions to the Symposium. I would like to extend our sincere thanks to all the sponsors who generously supported this Satellite Symposium, as well as to Thomas R. Jerrells, Editor-in-Chief of Alcohol, for his valuable advice and cooperation during the publication process of this Special Issue of Alcohol. Because it is the editorial policy of Alcohol that all manuscripts submitted for publication be peer-reviewed before acceptance for publication, we would especially like to extend our thanks to Dr. Jerrells and Janice Jerrells, Managing Editor for Alcohol, for arranging for peer-review of all the manuscripts, as well as to the reviewers who provided their time and expertise to review these manuscripts.