Translation of Research to Practice for the Treatment of Opioid Addiction

The HEALing Communities Study partners with a diverse set of communities hit hard by the opioid crisis to test the integration of evidence-based strategies for prevention, medication-based treatment, and overdose reversal. This comprehensive treatment model will be tested in a coordinated array of settings, including primary care, emergency departments, and other community settings. The findings will establish best practices for integrating opioid use disorder prevention and treatment strategies that can be replicated by communities nationwide.

Expansion of the National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network (CTN) is addressing emergent needs presented by the nation’s opioid and overdose crisis. The CTN integrates new opioid-related research questions into clinical studies related to substance use that are currently underway, expedites new studies in general medical and other settings, and enhances clinical and research training opportunities.

The Justice Community Opioid Innovation Network (JCOIN) aims to enhance quality care for opioid misuse and opioid use disorder in criminal justice-involved populations. JCOIN creates partnerships between local and state justice systems and community-based treatment providers. Its research findings are addressing the critical need to improve the quality of opioid use disorder treatment in the U.S. justice system.

In collaboration with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the Behavioral Research to Improve Medication-Based Treatment program is studying whether combining behavioral interventions with medication-based treatment for opioid use disorder improves health outcomes for patients with the condition. Behavioral interventions such as mindfulness meditation, cognitive behavioral therapy, and multidisciplinary rehabilitation are being evaluated as ways to increase adherence to medication-based treatment, reduce relapse, and improve health outcomes.

The Recovery Research Networks program focuses on developing multi-stakeholder networks (researchers, payors, providers, people in recovery) to support the development of infrastructure to advance the science of long-term recovery. Five projects form the Consortium on Addiction Recovery Science (CoARS). Collectively, these projects are developing resources to support recovery research centered around community-based recovery centers, justice-involved youth, family-based recovery, recovery in rural settings, and integrated networks of care.

The N CREW Program aims to co-construct and establish a novel way to partner with Tribes and T/NASOs to learn, understand, and meet Native American research needs, in direct response to priorities identified in Tribal Consultations and listening sessions. T/NASOs will be supported to flexibly and agilely respond to the opioid and other drug overdose crisis, in partnership with NIH and other organizations. The N CREW Program is planned as a multi-component program using a variety of funding mechanisms, which may include Other Transactions, Cooperative Agreements, Contracts and/or Grants over the course of the program.

In recent years, the proportion of opioid-related deaths involving co-occurring use of other substances has increased significantly. The Improving Delivery of Healthcare Services for Polysubstance Use program will support research to enhance understanding of why and how polysubstance use occurs and how it can be prevented. By assessing the treatment and recovery needs of people with polysubstance use, this research aims to address how best to meet these needs.

In support of the Administration’s focus on harm reduction to prevent or reduce overdose deaths, the Harm Reduction Approaches to Reduce Overdose Deaths program will establish a harm reduction network of research projects. This research will evaluate the effectiveness, implementation, and impact of existing and new harm reduction approaches.

The Continuum of Care in Hospitalized Patients with Opioid Use Disorder and Infectious Complications of Drug Use (CHOICE) program will evaluate patients hospitalized with an infectious complication of injection drug use and identify and understand gaps in care that arise across the continuum of care. The program will develop an informed intervention to eliminate barriers and improve health outcomes in this population.

Interventions to prevent and treat opioid use disorder and overdose are only useful if they work effectively in real-world settings. The Optimizing the Quality, Reach, and Impact of Addiction Services program supports action-oriented projects that accelerate research to practice translation, expanding care access and quality of care for all people with a substance use disorder. The program also includes research to support well-being among health and mental health care providers working with people with substance use disorders.