NIH Initiative Targets Better Ways to Prevent, Treat Opioid Addiction

The National Institutes of Health will spend about $1.1 billion this year on research to prevent and treat opioid addiction, NIH Director Francis Collins, M.D., announced today. The Helping to End Addiction Long-term Initiative will study patients after acute onset of musculoskeletal pain and after surgery to identify biomarkers that might predict those more likely to transition from acute to chronic pain; genetic and social factors that put patients at risk for opioid misuse and addiction; and best practices for pain management using nondrug and integrated therapies for specific pain conditions. It also will pursue public-private partnerships to develop new non-addictive pain medicines; build a clinical trials network to allow multiple compounds to be tested simultaneously for effectiveness; research additional treatment options for addiction and neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome; and test prevention and treatment options in health care and criminal justice settings in states with the highest opioid misuse and overdose rates.