About
This is a research group focused on the diagnosis, treatment and secondary prevention of Substance Use Disorder (SUD). The team is composed of clinicians of the Department of Internal Medicine at Germans Trias i Pujol University Hospital, a 600-bed teaching hospital in metropolitan Barcelona. They are involved in patient-centered clinical research on the most frequent complications of SUD and their main objective is to reduce the impact of SUD complications among those suffering the disease.
The research conducted by the group is supported by grants from Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII) through the collaborative platform Redes de Investigación Cooperativa Orientada a Resultados en Salud (RICORS) and from national agencies such as Plan Nacional Sobre Drogas (PNSD). The group is also recognised as Consolidated Research Group by the agency AGAUR, Catalan Government (2021 SGR 00945, 2017 SGR 316) and currently has eight active projects.
Keywords: Addiction medicine, substance use disorder, medical complications, alcohol use disorder.
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Group leader
- Robert Muga Bustamante, MD, PhD
Robert Muga Bustamante, MD, PhD
Dr Robert Muga is senior consultant at Germans Trias i Pujol University Hospital and professor of Medicine at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB). He completed his PhD at UAB and postdoctoral studies (MPH) at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore (EE.UU). Since 1994, Muga has been PI in projects funded by Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII). In 2002, he was scientific coordinator for the XIV International AIDS Conference held in Barcelona. He has been PI and group leader in the collaborative networks RETICS (Redes Temáticas de Investigación Cooperativa en Salud) and RICORS (Redes de Investigación Cooperativa Orientada a Resultados en Salud) since 2003.
Contact: rmuga.germanstrias(ELIMINAR)@gencat.cat
ORCID: 0000-0001-6301-431X
Team
Senior researcher, PI
Daniel Fuster Martí, MD, PhD(ELIMINAR)
Postdoctoral fellow, PI
Yenny Paola Zuluaga Blanco, MD, PhD(ELIMINAR)
Postdoctoral fellows
Núria García Marchena, PhD(ELIMINAR)
Anna Hernández Rubio, MD, PhD(ELIMINAR)
Doctoral candidates
Júlia Casado Carbajo, MD(ELIMINAR)
Xavier García Calvo, MD(ELIMINAR)
Clinical fellow
Marvin Scott Bueno Velez, MD(ELIMINAR)
Senior consultant in Biostatistics
Arantza Sanvisens Bergé(ELIMINAR)
Research assistants
Enric Abellí Deulofeu(ELIMINAR)
Sara Ceballos Aballe(ELIMINAR)
Research lines
- Clinical consequences of Substance Use Disorder (SUD)
- Alcohol-associated morbidity and mortality
- Therapeutic interventions in Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD)
- Monitoring viral infections (HCV, HIV, HBV) in SUD
- Intestinal permeability and systemic inflammation in AUD
- Cardiometabolic alterations of AUD
- Alcohol-associated immune alterations
Active projects
Alcoholic hepatitis: immunophenotypes, plasmatic protein expression and RNA sequencing at early diagnose of patients with alcohol use disorder
PI: Paola Zuluaga, Robert Muga
Funding agency: Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII)
Agency code: PI20/00883
Duration: 2021 - 2024
This research line analyses immunity activation phenotypes, the lymphocyte differentiation, and the role of specific serum proteins involved in the hepatic inflammatory reaction of patients with Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD).
Intestinal microbiota and alcohol use disorder. Impact of sex and concomitant use of cocaine and/or cannabis
PI: Daniel Fuster
Funding agency: Ministerio de Sanidad, Plan Nacional Sobre Drogas.
Agency code: PNSD 2020I024
Duration: 2021 - 2024
This research analyses immunity activation phenotypes, the lymphocyte differentiation, and the role of specific serum proteins involved in the hepatic inflammatory reaction of patients with Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD).
Uso inapropiado de opioides en pacientes con cáncer de pulmón
PI: Teresa Morán
Funding agency: Sociedad Española de Oncología Médica
Duration: 2019 – 2024
RECALAN study. Consumo de alcohol y complicaciones derivadas del mismo en pacientes de edad muy avanzada
PI: Dr. N. Novo-Voleiro (Universidad de Santiago de Compsotela); Site PIs: Dr Fuster, Dr Zuluaga and Dr Casado-Carbajo
Funding agency: Spanish Society of Internal Medicine (SEMI)
Duration: 2021 - 2024
Redes de Investigación Cooperativa Orientada a Resultados en Salud (RICORS)
PI: Robert Muga
Funding agency: Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), financed by NextGenerationEU
Agency code: RD21/0009/0004
Duration: 2022 - 2024
Ajuts per donar suport a les activitats dels grups de recerca. Grup de Recerca Consolidat
PI: Robert Muga
Funding agency: Departament de Recerca i Universitats, Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca (AGAUR)
Agency code: 2021 SGR 00945
Duration: 2023 - 2025
Diferencias en susceptibilidad genética a trastornos por uso de alcohol en función del sexo/género: implicaciones en tratamiento y pronóstico
PI: Javier Costas
Funding agency: Ministerio de Sanidad, Servicios Sociales e Igualdad, Plan Nacional Sobre Drogas
Agency code: 2021 SGR 00945
This project aims to identify genetic evidences of the prevalence of different pathways towards Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) in men and women and to detect interactions between genotype (by Polygenic Risk Scores) and sex/gender in predicting the severity of AUD, polydrug use and psychiatric comorbidity
Programa Joan Rodés
PI: Paola Zuluaga
Funding agency: Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII)
Agency code: JR 20/00016
Duration: 2011 - 2024
Past projects
Multicentric study of adult people with alcohol use disorder that seek treatment for the first time (CohRTA Study)
PI: Robert Muga
Funding agency: Ministerio de Sanidad, Plan Nacional Sobre Drogas.
Agency code: PNSD 2018I020
The objective of this study conducted in 9 Spanish centres was to collect clinical information in a wide series of AUD patients that start treatment for the first time and to analyse its impact on health.
Red de Trastornos Adictivos. Redes Temáticas de Investigación Cooperativa en Salud (RETICS)
PI: Robert Muga
Funding agency: Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII). Ministerio de Ciencia y Competitividad
Agency code: RD16/0017/0003
Scientific publications
Highlighted publications
Santo T Jr, Clark B, Hickman M, Grebely J, Campbell G, Sordo L, Chen A, Tran LT, Bharat C, Padmanathan P, Cousins G, Dupouy J, Kelty E, Muga R, Nosyk B, Min J, Pavarin R, Farrell M, Degenhardt L. Association of Opioid Agonist Treatment With All-Cause Mortality and Specific Causes of Death Among People With Opioid Dependence: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. JAMA Psychiatry. 2021 Sep 1;78(9):979-993. DOI: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2021.0976.
Fuster D, Samet JH. Alcohol Use in Patients with Chronic Liver Disease. N Engl J Med. 2018 Sep 27;379(13):1251-1261. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMra1715733.
Muga R, Sanvisens A, Jarrin I, Fuster D, Bolao F, Tor J, Muñoz A. Hepatitis C infection substantially reduces survival of alcohol-dependent patients. Clin Epidemiol. 2018 Aug 1;10:897-905. DOI: 10.2147/CLEP.S162308.
Rivas I, Sanvisens A, Bolao F, Fuster D, Tor J, Pujol R, Torrens M, Rey-Joly C, Muga R. Impact of medical comorbidity and risk of death in 680 patients with alcohol use disorders. Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2013 Jan;37 Suppl 1:E221-7. DOI: 10.1111/j.1530-0277.2012.01861.x.
Muga R, Langohr K, Tor J, Sanvisens A, Serra I, Rey-Joly C, Muñoz A. Survival of HIV-infected injection drug users (IDUs) in the highly active antiretroviral therapy era, relative to sex- and age-specific survival of HIV-uninfected IDUs. Clin Infect Dis. 2007 Aug 1;45(3):370-6. DOI: 10.1086/519385.
Additional information
Collaborative projects
RICORS. Red de Investigación en Atención Primaria de Adicciones (RIAPAd)
RIAPad is composed of 18 research groups from 10 autonomous regions doing collaborative research in basic and clinical aspects of SUD. The network has been publishing articles for 20 years, presenting their research progress at national and international conferences and disseminating results to the society.
At RIAPad, this Medical Complications of Substance Abuse Group coordinates the multicenter study called CohRTA, which analyses the clinical outcomes and survival of patients seeking a first treatment of AUD. Besides, the team leads two work packages on comorbidity (Dr R Muga) and translational medicine in SUD (Dr Fuster).
Urban Arch Consortium
Urban Arch is a consortium of academic centers to study the impact of unhealthy alcohol use on HIV infection. The Urban Arch cohort is financed by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) (grants U24AA020778, U01AA020780, U01AA020780 and U01AA021989) from the US National Institutes of Health.
COSTAR Training Program
The U.S-based COllaborative Scholar Training in Addiction Research (COSTAR) program is an initiative from Vanderbilt University and Oregon Health Sciences Center that has European partners to host visiting scholars during their elective research experiences in Addiction medicine.
Spanish AIDS Research Cohort (CoRIS)
The Spanish AIDS Research Cohort CoRIS is a multicenter study supported by Instituto de Salud Carlos III through Red Temática de Investigación Cooperativa en Sida (RD06/006, RD12/0017/0018 and RD16/0002/0006) and from Consorcio Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red (CIBER, CB21/13/00091).
HORIZON-MSCA-2023-Doctoral Network-01
Dr Muga and Dr Fuster are associated partners in a HORIZON-MSCA-2023-Doctoral Network-01 grant entitled "Health Impacts of Prolonged and Abusive Alcohol Consumption: Coordinated Research, Collaborative Networks, and Improved Solutions (Hi-PALc)" and led by Dr Fernando Rodriguez de Fonseca from IBIMA research institute in Malaga.
Doctoral theses
Title: Metabolic consequences of alcohol use disorder
Author: Anna Hernández Rubio
Director and tutor: Robert Muga Bustamante
University: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB)
Date of defense: October 2023
Title: Medical complications of Alcohol Use Disorder. Inflammation and cardiovascular health
Author: Xavier García Calvo
Director: Daniel Fuster Martí
Tutor: Robert Muga Bustamante
University: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB)
To be defended at the end of 2024
News
Financing for a Germans Trias i Pujol project in the third edition of the PERIS call
The Ministry of Health presented the grants for the 2018 and 2019 calls of the Strategic Plan for Innovation in Health (PERIS) on Tuesday. In this year's round the Germans Trias neurologist Natalia Pérez de la Ossa received a grant for the project for pre-hospitalization healthcare for patients with acute stroke. The doctor Daniel Fuster was also awarded a grant for the second edition, which he received at the same ceremony.
Overview on recommendations on alcohol consumption for patients with liver disease
Dr Daniel Fuster of the Addiction Unit of the Internal Medicine Service at the Germans Trias i Pujol University Hospital and Research Institute (IGTP) and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona has co-authored a landmark review article on alcohol use in patients with chronic liver disease with Dr Jeffrey H Samet of Boston Medical Center and University School of Medicine. The article has been published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Contact
Robert Muga Bustamante
(+34) 93 465 12 00 extn. 3582
Daniel Fuster
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