Much research has been done on the abuse of alcohol and drugs, its causes, and its prevention. This research can be critical in framing your prevention efforts. Like any existing data, you need to consider whether research comes from a reliable source and whether the research was done using subjects comparable to those in your community. Sources of, and guides to, research on substance abuse include the following:
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
http://www.niaaa.nih.gov/
This site contains resources on alcohol abuse, including the archived ETOH Database, a searchable database of more than 130,000 records on alcohol abuse and alcoholism for the period from 1972 through 2003. A link to an annotated list of alcohol and other drug-related databases also is provided.
National Institute on Drug Abuse
http://www.drugabuse.gov/
NIDA is the Federal focal point for research on drug abuse and addiction and this site contains a wide range of material and resources on drug and alcohol abuse, including links to the annual reports of the Monitoring the Future Survey (MTF). MTF is a national survey of drug, alcohol, and cigarette use and related attitudes among adolescent students (Volume I) and college students and adults ages 19-50 (Volume II). The survey is funded by the NIDA and conducted by the University of Michigan. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Data Archive, which contains data from a wide range of studies including Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN), Monitoring the Future (MTF), and the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), also can be accessed through this site.
Project CORK
http://www.projectcork.org/
This online resource contains bibliographies, publications, power point presentations and a searchable database of 89,000 items on substance abuse, most of which are drawn from the professional literature-. The site also contains an annotated list of related Web sites– and a set of current awareness newsletters containing summaries of over 1,300 substance abuse related journal articles.
ERIC
http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/search/extended.jsp?_pageLabel=advanced
Funded and maintained by the United States Department of Education, this database contains more than one million abstracts of research reports, journal articles, and other publications on education research and practice, including fairly broad and deep coverage of the literature on substance abuse and prevention among school-aged children.
PubMed
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/
This is a free resource developed and maintained by the National Center for Biotechnology Information at the National Library of Medicine. The searchable database contains more than 21 million citations to biomedical literature from MEDLINE (the primary component of PubMed, approximately 90%), life science journals, and online books, often with links to full-text content or publisher’s web sites. The subject scope of MEDLINE is biomedicine and health, broadly defined, and includes research from the life and behavioral sciences to provide information needed by health professionals and others engaged in activities related to public health and health policy development, as well as basic research and clinical care. Since 2005, 2,000 to 4,000 references are added to the database each week.

Developed under the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) Center for the Application of Prevention Technologies contract. Reference #HHSS277200800004C. For training and/or technical assistance purposes only.