My Biosketch for an International Conference

by Hanna Vinitskaya
(Belarus)

In 2007 due to the Programme of Assistance for the Prevention of Drug Abuse and Drug Trafficking in Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova (BUMAD), funded by the European Union and the United Nations Development Programme in Belarus, the Laboratory was reorganized in the Belarusian Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (National Focal Point), responsible for collecting information on the prevalence of drug abuse and illicit drug trafficking in the country.

My main areas of interests include epidemiological, sociological and biomedical studies of alcohol and drug addiction. These biomedical studies were focused on the investigation of neurotransmitter mechanisms involved in the development of alcohol and opiate addiction.

Currently my research interests are focus on the different aspects of psychoactive substance prevalence in Belarus, including problem and severe drug abuse, drug-related mortality, spread of blood-borne diseases and other co-morbidity in drug users.

Apart from the above-mentioned topics the a subarea of my particular focus, are is the investigation of risk factors in adolescent drug use. In the frame of this topic I have taken part in preparations to the ESPAD-like national-wide survey planned to be performed in Belarus last year.

During the my 17 years of work in the Laboratory and NFP I have published about 50 articles in the native Russian and Belarusian peer-reviewed journals. Three of these articles were published in, Addiction Biology, Alcoholism. Journal on Alcoholism and Related Addictions, Environmental Toxicology and Pharmacology. The cumulative number of publication is 167 including the papers in the proceeding of conferences. I am also the co-author of two Annual Drug Reports of Belarus, which describe the main trends in drug use over the last several years in Belarus and are presented on the sites of UNDP, and EMCDDA.