Addressing the Opioid Crisis Though Prevention: Toward an Agenda for Research and Practice

The development of effective, extremely powerful, and widely available analgesic medications has had the unintended consequence of fueling an epidemic of opioid addiction and related medical and social consequences that have disrupted the lives of millions. Primary motivations for the misuse of pharmaceuticals are to relieve pain, induce relaxation, get high, and manage addiction (Han et al., 2017). Multiple efforts have been mounted to engage the medical community in practices that improve patient care and safety (Barth et al., 2017; Dowell, Haegerich, and Chou, 2016) and a nationwide effort to improve safe disposal of unused medications has spread (Egan et al., 2017; Gray and Hagemeier, 2012). The National Institutes of Health has advanced important strategic plans for addressing the crisis (Volkow and Collins, 2017) that can be further enhanced through developing targeted prevention approaches and stronger evidence for existing strategies that may interrupt underlying causes of opioid misuse and abuse. For this roundtable, five distinguished panel members who bring diverse experiences in drug abuse prevention research and prevention services research will describe and discuss findings with implications for the prevention of opioid misuse, abuse and addiction. Discussants will offer remarks with attention to opportunities to build and test prevention resources and services for populations that face unique challenges with regard to drug exposure, misuse, and addiction. Such populations include but are not limited to infants exposed to opiates prenatally, children of opioid addicted parents, military personnel, rural and reservation communities, and youth with mental health problems or substance use behaviors. Panelists will provide remarks regarding their views on prevention needs in these populations, infrastructure for prevention, and opportunities for research. Those who attend the session will be encouraged to share their knowledge and engage in a discussion to support the creation and testing of innovative and timely preventive interventions and the dissemination of evidence-based interventions that can be adopted within affected communities.