Invited Roundtable: The National Institute on Drug Abuse's Priorities and Efforts to Address the Opioid Epidemic

An estimated 11.4 million people misused opioids in 2017, of which 11.1 million misused prescription opioid analgesics. Opioid drugs, including opioid analgesics, heroin and illicit synthetics, accounted for more than 60% of overdoses in 2016. The urgency of the opioid crisis calls for research to develop and implement strategies to prevent opioid misuse and opioid use disorder (OUD), particularly in at-risk populations. For this roundtable, representatives from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) will discuss NIH’s Helping to End Addiction Long-term (HEAL^SM) initiatives and other efforts to speed development and implementation of scientific solutions to the national opioid public health crisis. The discussants will focus on initiatives and projects underway, as well as challenges and opportunities for opioid research, and engage the audience in discussion about future directions for research to address the opioid crisis, particularly in relation to populations and settings that are highly impacted. In addition, the roundtable will include discussion of forward-thinking strategies and research to identify emerging trends and prevent new and emerging epidemics. Panelists will provide an overview and highlights for the following opioid-related research initiatives and efforts: 1) the HEALing Communities Study, which will test an integrated set of evidence-based interventions across health care, behavioral health, justice, and other community-based settings to prevent and treat opioid misuse and OUD within highly affected communities; 2) the Justice Community Opioid Innovation Network (JCOIN), which involves researchers collaborating across justice, health care and other community-based service settings to develop effective responses to opioid misuse and OUD in justice-involved populations; 3) a project for Preventing Opioid Use Disorder in Older Adolescents and Young Adults (ages 16-30), which is designed to develop, adapt and test interventions and strategies to prevent initiation of opioid misuse and development of OUD in at-risk older adolescents and young adults in health care, justice and other settings opportune for accessing and engaging at-risk populations; 4) NIDA’s research on patterns of opioid misuse, OUD, and overdose deaths in American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN), and initiatives at NIDA to address the disparities in OUD for AI/AN populations; and, 5) NIDA’s broader opioid epidemiology and prevention research portfolios and areas where additional research is needed. Attendees are invited to discuss their own research, share what they see as important gaps and emerging trends, and share resources and opportunities that could facilitate collaboration and advance opioid research.