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Co-occurring anxiety disorders and alcohol use disorders (AUDs) are of great interest to researchers and clinicians. Cumulative evidence from epidemiological and clinical studies over the past few decades has highlighted both the frequency and clinical impact of this comorbidity. Investigations into the unique connections between specific anxiety disorders and AUDs have shown that this association...

This issue of Alcohol Research: Current Reviews focuses on the impact of stress on alcohol consumption. The significance of stress on alcohol abuse recently has been reemphasized by the alcohol use problems following posttraumatic stress disorder, such as those seen with some combat veterans. Behavior is described as an interaction between genetic constitution and environmental influences. Of the...

Exposure to varying forms of stress is an integral life experience that can provoke a variety of reactions. In research on alcohol, drug, and psychiatric disorders, the term “stress” often is understood to indicate any experience denoting adversity (Dohrenwend 2000). Stress exposures consist of external stimuli that are threatening or harmful; elicit fear, anxiety, anger, excitement, and/or...

In 2010, NIAAA marked a significant milestone, celebrating 40 years of research on alcohol abuse and alcoholism. Throughout this time, NIAAA’s journal has played an important role, raising awareness about topics in alcohol research and ensuring that important findings from the field were disseminated to the widest possible audience.

The journal began under the title Alcohol World. It had a newsy...

During the first decade of the new millennium, remarkable advances in technology allowed investigators in all areas of biological research to collect massive amounts of genetic data at an unprecedented rate. The genomics revolution, which began with the sequencing of the human genome, was the basis for efforts such as the 1,000 Genomes Project (http://www.1000genomes.org/) that strive to compile a...

Over the last decade, three large-scale projects have catalyzed a revolution in genetic technologies and studies. First, the Human Genome Project laid the foundation for modern genetic studies of disease by determining the basic sequence of the 3 billion building blocks (i.e., base pairs) that make up the human genome and by identifying the approximately 25,000 genes included in this sequence (htt...

There are two major ways of publishing scientific data and results: (1) the standard peer-reviewed paper, which dates back to volume 1 of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society in 1665; and (2) online distribution of data, resources, and software using the Internet that dates back a mere 21 years to the first Web site at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN)...

A host of biological (i.e., genetic) and environmental factors interact throughout the addictive process to influence alcohol use and abuse. These processes are accompanied by a number of behavioral and neural events that include, but are not limited to, changes in the motivational effects of ethanol (both rewarding and aversive), tolerance to some effects of ethanol, and withdrawal when ethanol...

Alcohol Research: Current Reviews (ARCR) is an open-access, peer-reviewed journal published by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) at the National Institutes of Health. As of 2020, ARCR has published articles on a continuous, rolling basis, comprising one virtual issue per yearly volume.

Articles published in ARCR are available online with no subscription or pay-per-view...

NIAAA/NIH Staff

Pamela Wernett, Ph.D., P.M.P.
Editor in Chief and Contracting Officer’s Representative

Pamela joined ARCR in 2018 as an Associate Editor and advanced to Editor in Chief for the journal in 2021. She has managed the journal contract with IQ Solutions as the Contracting Officer’s Representative since 2020. Pamela also serves as a Senior Health Science Policy Analyst within NIAAA’s...