Preventing Opioid Use Disorder
Overview
The Research Need
According to the 2020 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 9.5 million people age 12 or older had misused opioids in the past year, and 2.7 million people had an opioid use disorder. Effective prevention reduces the risk that any of these individuals begins misusing opioids or progresses to opioid use disorder. Although there are a variety of effective strategies for preventing substance use disorders, it is unknown how well they work to prevent opioid misuse or opioid use disorder.
There is a particular need for prevention interventions that can be used in systems and settings that reach populations most affected by the opioid crisis. Persistent challenges implementing, scaling up, and sustaining prevention interventions make it difficult for organizations and public systems to provide access to prevention services for all who might benefit.
About the Program
Research in this program will generate science that will, ultimately, enable healthcare organizations and public systems to make evidence-based preventive intervention services available and accessible to all people at risk for opioid and other substance misuse or disorders. Prevention solutions to the opioid crisis need to be developed in partnership with the organizations and systems that can sustain the services long-term. This comprehensive research program focuses on four strategic areas: identifying risk; studying the role of social determinants and policy, particularly their impacts on health equity; developing effective interventions; and supporting research toward disseminating and implementing sustainable, scalable prevention services.
Researchers will aim to improve access to prevention services among populations with risk for opioid misuse, with a focus on underserved populations that experience health disparities (such as the justice system, homeless shelters, the child welfare system, emergency departments, and community health centers). Researchers will also develop interventions that target key periods of time when individual risk of starting opioid misuse is high (such as the transition from adolescence into young adulthood, during mental health challenges or a crisis, or when experiencing pain or starting opioid-based pain management).
The program supports research projects with a community engagement strategy specific to their intervention and implementation within a target setting to integrate user experiences and perspectives important for the future implementation and scale-up of the interventions
Program Details
To date, through the Helping to End Addiction Long-term® Initiative, or NIH HEAL Initiative®, the program funds a range of awards that advance science across four strategic areas.
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Research Examples
Research examples supported by this program include:
- Developing and testing interventions to prevent opioid misuse and opioid use disorder among young people age 15 to 30 in various settings and with a range of populations
- Building an evidence base for interventions that target malleable factors and conditions affecting social determinants of health
- Designing multi-level interventions that modify social context, delineating the mechanisms through which interventions can improve social conditions and decrease opioid misuse risk
- Testing economic costs and outcomes of interventions focused on social determinants
- Identifying risk and protective factors and trajectories or pathways to opioid misuse and opioid use disorder, including examining associations between tobacco, cannabis, and opioid use
- Adapting and assessing effects of existing substance use prevention interventions on opioid use outcomes among young people
- Examining how social networks affect opioid use disorder, related risks, and intervention outcomes, focusing on disparate populations within American Indian/Alaska Native communities
Research Institution Awards
- Boston Medical Center – Massachusetts
- Brown University – Rhode Island
- Emory University – Georgia
- Indian Health Council, Inc. – California
- Johns Hopkins University – Maryland
- Kaiser Foundation Research Institute – California
- Massachusetts General Hospital – Massachusetts
- New York University School of Medicine – New York
- Ohio State University – Ohio
- Oregon Health and Science University – Oregon
- Oregon Social Learning Center – Oregon
- RAND Corporation – California
- Seattle Children’s Hospital – Washington
- Texas Christian University – Texas
- University of Colorado, Denver – Colorado
- University of Maryland, College Park – Maryland
- University of Michigan at Ann Arbor – Michigan
- University of Oregon – Oregon
- University of Pittsburgh at Pittsburgh – Pennsylvania
- University of Washington – Washington
- University of Utah – Utah
- Washington University – Missouri
- West Virginia University – West Virginia
- Yale University – Connecticut
Coordinating Center Award
- RTI Institute – North Carolina
Funded Projects
Closed Funding Opportunities
Participating NIH Institutes, Centers, and Offices
Events
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HEAL Prevention Webinar Series (Ongoing)
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HEAL Prevention Podcast Series (Ongoing)
-
HEAL Prevention Initiative (HPI) Year 4 - December 6 – 7, 2022
- HEAL Prevention Initiative (HPI) Year 3 - November 10, 2021
Contact
Amy Goldstein Ph.D.
NIDA
Resources
- HEAL Prevention Cooperative (HPC) Profiles pdf 2.84 MB - Nov 2, 2022
- HEAL Social Determinants Pre-Application TA Webinar Slides pdf 1.02 MB - Jan 6, 2022
- HEAL SDOH RFA Pre-Application Webinar FAQs pdf 74.06 KB - Jan 6, 2022
- HEAL Preventing Opioid Use Disorder in Older Adolescents and Young Adults (ages 16-30) FOA Technical Assistance Webinar - Jan 17, 2019
- Preventing Opioid Use Disorder in Older Adolescents and Young Adults (Ages 16-30): Expert Panel Planning Meeting - Sep 26, 2018
View Other Research Programs in This Focus Area
- Collaborative Care for Polysubstance use in Primary Care Settings (Co-Care)
- Optimizing Care for People with Opioid Use Disorder and Mental Health Conditions
- Optimizing the Duration, Retention, and Discontinuation of Medication Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder
- Prevention of Progression to Moderate or Severe Opioid Use Disorder (STOP)
- Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-controlled Trial of Monthly Injectable Buprenorphine for Methamphetamine Use Disorder (MURB)
- Sleep Dysfunction as a Core Feature of Opioid Use Disorder and Recovery