U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
What is the NIH HEAL Initiative?
What is the NIH HEAL Initiative?
Over 50 million Americans suffer from chronic pain. Opioid medications are a common treatment for pain, but effective and safe non-opioid options for pain management are lacking. The widespread use of opioids to treat acute and chronic pain contributed to the approximately 10.3 million people aged 12 years and older in the United States in 2018 who misused opioids.
The Helping to End Addiction Long-termSM Initiative, or NIH HEAL InitiativeSM, is taking an “all hands on deck” approach to the opioid crisis, garnering expertise from almost every NIH Institute and Center (IC) to accelerate research and address the public health emergency from all angles.
Learn about the NIH HEAL Initiative
Research Priorities
In 2018, NIH, in consultation with a broad range of stakeholders, identified a set of research priorities reflecting urgent unmet needs across the lifespan, areas of promising scientific opportunity, and concrete strategies capable of providing rapid and durable solutions to the opioid crisis.
Through evidence-based scientific research, the NIH HEAL Initiative will provide lasting, scientific solutions to the opioid crisis.
Funded Research Focus Areas
Funded Research Focus Areas
Through the initiative, NIH supports research to enhance pain management and improve treatment for opioid misuse and addiction. The initiative includes research focus areas led by 12 NIH ICs supporting hundreds of projects that reflect the full spectrum of research from basic science to implementation research.
Find information on funding for the initiative
NIH funds $945 million in research to tackle the national opioid crisis through NIH HEAL Initiative
NIH funds $945 million in research to tackle the national opioid crisis through NIH HEAL Initiative
To reverse the opioid crisis that continues to grip the nation, the National Institutes of Health has awarded $945 million in total fiscal year 2019 funding for grants, contracts and cooperative agreements across 41 states through the Helping to End Addiction Long-term Initiative or NIH HEAL Initiative.
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