Funded Projects

NOFO Title: HEAL Initiative: Translating Research to Practice to End the Overdose Crisis (R61/R33 Clinical Trial Optional)
NOFO Number: RFA-DA-23-053

NOFO Title: Developing Regulated Therapeutic and Diagnostic Solutions for Patients Affected by Opioid and/or Stimulants use Disorders (OUD/StUD) (R43/R44 - Clinical Trial Optional)
NOFO Number: RFA-DA-23-021

NOFO Title: HEAL Initiative: HEAL Data2Action Innovation Projects (R61/R33 Clinical Trial Optional)
NOFO Number: RFA-DA-22-051

NOFO Title: HEAL Initiative: HEAL Data2Action Innovation Projects (R61/R33 Clinical Trial Optional)
NOFO Number: RFA-DA-22-051

NOFO Title: HEAL Initiative: Translating Research to Practice to End the Overdose Crisis (R61/R33 Clinical Trial Optional)
NOFO Number: RFA-DA-23-053
Summary:

Significant racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, and geographic disparities affect access to opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment and have thus contributed to the opioid overdose crisis. Patient navigator interventions after hospitalization can improve access to treatment, but challenges prevent full adoption of these strategies. These include lack of coordination across institutions, inadequate data sharing, workforce shortages, and lack of awareness, especially in resource-limited communities. This project aims to develop a hospital system-wide patient navigation protocol that can be scaled up to address OUD treatment linkage and continuity after hospitalization.

NOFO Title: HEAL Initiative: Translating Research to Practice to End the Overdose Crisis (R61/R33 Clinical Trial Optional)
NOFO Number: RFA-DA-23-053
Summary:

People who work in harm reduction settings aiming to keep people with substance use disorders safe from overdose and other negative health outcomes are exposed to high rates of lifetime and occupational stress and trauma. Their work conditions can have adverse effects on patient care and also on their own well-being, such as unmet mental health needs, burnout, and relapse. This project will adapt the Stress First Aid intervention for harm reduction workers. The research will test the impact of this intervention on social support, burnout, secondary traumatic stress, use of mental health care, engagement, and turnover. The long-term goal of this work is to implement a sustainable and effective national occupational stress intervention for harm reduction workers to strengthen their important role in helping individuals get treatment and avoid overdose.

NOFO Title: HEAL Initiative: Translating Research to Practice to End the Overdose Crisis (R61/R33 Clinical Trial Optional)
NOFO Number: RFA-DA-23-053
Summary:

Many people in jail have both opioid use disorder (OUD) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Among people with OUD released from jail, only few engage in treatment and medication therapy once they are back in the community, and opioid overdose is a leading cause of death in this population. This project will test whether identifying and initiating treatment of PTSD in people receiving OUD treatment in jail can increase these individuals’ likelihood of starting and staying in medication treatment after release and thus reduce overdose risk.

NOFO Title: HEAL Initiative: Translating Research to Practice to End the Overdose Crisis (R61/R33 Clinical Trial Optional)
NOFO Number: RFA-DA-23-053
Summary:

Current practices and culture in treatment programs for opioid use disorder, including treatment with methadone, may contribute to treatment interruption and relapse risk. This project will develop and test a staff-level intervention for opioid treatment programs to increase methadone treatment retention and decrease in-treatment overdose and patient- and staff-reported posttraumatic stress symptoms. The intervention includes components to address trauma in patients and staff as well as separate supervisory structures for counselors/case managers and medical providers.

NOFO Title: HEAL Initiative: Development and validation of virtual assessments to study children and caregivers in their natural environment (R01- Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
NOFO Number: RFA-DA-23-050
Summary:

Both an infant’s ability to regulate their emotions and infant-parent interactions are critical to healthy brain and behavioral development. Accurate assessment of these factors for research in laboratory settings is technically difficult and burdensome for participants. Next-generation methods that can be used at home, including wearable sensors and machine learning approaches, promise to make it easier to assess infants with prenatal substance exposures. This project will use remote sensing technologies and machine learning to characterize dynamic real-time infant emotion regulation and infant-caregiver interactions throughout the day and in the home.

NOFO Title: HEAL Initiative: Therapeutics Development for Opioid Use Disorder in Patients with Co-occurring Mental Disorders (UG3/UH3 - Clinical Trial Optional)
NOFO Number: RFA-DA-23-049
Summary:

People who have anxiety and/or depression are particularly susceptible to misusing opioids to avoid negative emotional states. This project aims to develop and test a fully autonomous (no-human operator) cognitive behavioral therapy-based digital therapeutic for people with co-occurring opioid use disorder and anxiety or depression. The goal is to specifically target compulsive opioid use motivated by the relief of unpleasant emotions. The researchers will modify an existing digital therapeutic and test its efficacy in this patient population.

NOFO Title: HEAL Initiative: Therapeutics Development for Opioid Use Disorder in Patients with Co-occurring Mental Disorders (UG3/UH3 - Clinical Trial Optional)
NOFO Number: RFA-DA-23-049
Summary:

Patients with opioid use disorder and co-occurring chronic pain and anxiety are at the highest risk for opioid overdose deaths. Low-intensity focused ultrasound (LIFU) is an innovative, noninvasive method that can be used to alter brain activity and potentially repair dysfunctional brain circuits involved in these disorders. This project will examine how LIFU directed to a small but critical brain region implicated in all three of these disorders, the anterior insula, can reduce drug craving, pain response, and anxiety symptoms as well as improve the physiological processes that may underlie the symptoms experienced by these patients.

NOFO Title: HEAL Initiative: Translating Research to Practice to End the Overdose Crisis (R61/R33 Clinical Trial Optional)
NOFO Number: RFA-DA-23-053
Summary:

Women with opioid use disorder (OUD) are disproportionately impacted by physical, sexual, and psychological intimate partner violence and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Yet, treatment approaches that address all these conditions together in OUD treatment settings are lacking. To address this gap, this project will evaluate delivery of two evidence-based interventions to address PTSD (Present-Centered Therapy+ and Helping to Overcome PTSD through Empowerment) for women seeking OUD treatment who have experienced intimate partner violence. It will also determine if integrated treatment can help retain the women in medication treatment for OUD.

NOFO Title: HEAL Initiative: Development and validation of virtual assessments to study children and caregivers in their natural environment (R01- Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
NOFO Number: RFA-DA-23-050
Summary:

High-quality parent-infant interactions set the stage for secure parent-child attachment, self-reliance, and children’s ability to flexibly solve problems and “bounce back” from difficulties. This constellation of behaviors reduces the risk of developing substance use disorders later in life. This project will develop algorithms that use data from wearable sensors, trained separately for English- and Spanish-speaking families, to assess the quality of early mother-infant interactions objectively, automatically, and remotely in natural home environments, with the goal of developing tools to facilitate identification and prevention of early risks for substance use disorders.