With the ongoing opioid crisis in the United States, scientists are always on the lookout for new solutions to both avoid and treat addiction. There were more than 42,000 drug overdose deaths involving opioids – both of the prescription variety and illegal drugs like heroin – in 2016. In response, in the summer of 2018 the National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently announced a plan called Helping to End Addiction Long-term, or HEAL. It’s an initiative involving many of the NIH Institutes, including the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), and other U.S. health agencies.

HEAL has two main goals: improving treatment for opioid abuse and addiction, preventing people from overdosing and hopefully from becoming dependent in the first place, and helping people manage long-term pain without resorting to potentially addictive medications. NIDA is currently researching the following:

The HEAL Initiative seeks to partner with sites and organizations that help the underserved communities both in the United States and internationally. They pair physicians with “front line” healthcare providers in communities with a lack of resources or trained professionals. Doctors in these communities are trained and mentored over a two year period, both in person and remotely.  In order to make this possible, NIH is nearly doubling funding for research on opioid misuse and addiction and pain from approximately $600 million in fiscal year 2016 to $1.1 billion in fiscal year 2018.

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