Substance Use Disorder Trajectories and Outcomes Within the Broader Socio-Environmental Context: An NIH HEAL Initiative Workshop

Overview

Recent advances have led to the development of multiple effective treatments for substance use disorder. However, long-term outcomes and recovery remain a challenge, in part due to low medication adherence and high dropout rates. It remains unclear to what extent long-term outcomes are influenced by individual-level variables, and how these influences might interact with the socio-environmental background in the context of relapse and recovery. There is growing consensus on the importance of considering the broader social context — including economic, cultural, and structural factors — on substance use disorder (SUD) outcomes. This is a cause for concern in SUD research, given known health disparities in substance use outcomes, particularly among Black and American Indian/Alaskan Native communities and as a result of socioeconomic inequities.
 

As a first step to address these questions, HEAL will convene a workshop to address the following key issues concerning recovery from SUD at multiple levels of inquiry: 

1. Articulate a common set of operational goals for NIDA divisions to work from in the study of recovery:
   • Common definition of recovery (day 1)
     • Centered on lived and clinical experience.
     • Including the impact of individual, social, and environmental factors on recovery in underserved populations.
   • Translating recovery into clinical studies (day 2)
     • Measures across multiple domains: Social environmental, behavioral, and neurobiological
     • Suggested time horizons, statistical power, personalization of recovery measures
     • What challenges exist in obtaining these measurements?
2. Identify gaps in recovery research and mechanistic models of recovery.
    

The immediate goals of this workshop are to aid in the coordinated development of an enhanced recovery and social environmental research portfolio across NIDA resulting in: 

• New models for clinical study
• Additional outcomes in treatment and therapeutics
• Increased efficacy in applied practice

The workshop will include four focused discussions. Approximately 50 experts across domains will come together to provide their perspectives and discuss priorities. The public is welcome to join this workshop. Public participants will be able to view the discussions and provide comments via the chat function. The public must register for the workshop to receive the Zoom link.