From the blog of Dr. Lora Volkow, National Institute on Drug Abuse Posted June 12, 2018
In spring 2018 Congress added an additional $500 million to the NIH budget to invest in the search for solutions to the opioid crisis. The Helping to End Addiction Long-term (HEAL) initiative is being kicked off June 12th with the announcement of several bold projects across NIH focusing on two main areas: improving opioid addiction treatments and enhancing pain management to prevent addiction and overdose. The funding NIDA is receiving will go toward the goal of addressing addiction in new ways, and creating better delivery systems for addictions counseling for those in need.
NIH will be developing new addiction treatments and overdose-reversal tools. Three medications are currently FDA-approved to treat opioid addiction. Lofexidine—a drug initially developed to treat high blood pressure—has just been approved to treat physical symptoms of opioid withdrawal. Narcan (naloxone) is available in injectable and intranasal formulations to reverse overdose. Regardless, more options are needed. One area of need involves new formulations of existing drugs, such as longer-acting formulations of opioid agonists and longer-acting naloxone formulations more suitable for reversing fentanyl overdoses. Compounds are also needed that target different receptor systems or immunotherapies for treating symptoms of withdrawal and craving in addition to the progression of opioid use disorders.
Much research already points to the benefits of increasing the availability of treatment options for Opioid Use Disorder (“OUD”), especially among populations currently embroiled in the justice system. Justice Community Opioid Innovation Network is working to create a network of researchers who can rapidly conduct studies aimed at improving access to high-quality, evidence-based addiction treatment in justice settings. It will involve implementing a national survey of addiction treatment delivery services in local and state justice systems; studying the effectiveness and adoption of medications, interventions, and technologies in those settings; and finding ways to use existing data sources as well as developing new research methods to ensure that interventions have the maximum impact.
The National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network (“CTN”) facilitates collaboration between NIDA, research scientists at universities, and a myriad of treatment providers in the community, with the aim of developing, testing, and implementing addiction treatments. As part of the HEAL initiative, the CTN Opioid Research Enhancement Project will greatly expand the CTN’s capacity to conduct trials by adding new sites and new investigators. The funds will also enable the expansion of existing studies and facilitate developing and implementing new studies to improve identification of opioid misuse and OUD. Further, it will enhance engagement and retention of patients in treatment in a variety of general medical settings, including primary care, emergency departments, ob/gyn, and pediatrics.
A great tragedy of the opioid crisis is that there are a number of effective tools not being deployed effectively in communities in need. Only a fraction of people with OUD receive any treatment, and of those less than half receive medications that are universally acknowledged to be the standard of care. Moreover, patients often receive medications for too short a duration. As part of its HEAL efforts, NIDA will launch a multi-site implementation research study called the HEALing Communities Study in partnership with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The HEALing Communities Study will support research in up to three communities highly affected by the opioid crisis, which should help evaluate how the implementation of an integrated set of evidence-based interventions within healthcare, behavioral health, justice systems, and community organizations can work to decrease opioid overdoses and prevent and treat OUD. Lessons learned from this study will yield best practices that can then be applied to other communities across the nation.
The HEAL Initiative is a tremendous opportunity to focus taxpayer dollars effectively where they are needed the most: in applying science to find solutions to the worst drug crisis our country has ever seen.
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