NIH Gives Nearly $1B to Fighting Addiction, Chronic Pain

The National Institutes of Health have granted almost $1 billion to combat addiction and chronic pain, the most the government research center has committed to any one program, The Washington Post reports.

The NIH's Helping to End Addiction Long-term (HEAL) initiative has awarded $945 million in research grants to 375 recipients in 41 states, which will go toward research on improved treatments for opioid addiction, finding non-addictive ways of treating chronic pain and developing guidelines for treating infants that are born with a drug dependency, among others.

"President [Donald] Trump'’s approach to the opioid crisis and HHS's strategy have both been based in the best science we have," Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said in a statement. "We have effective tools, such as medication-assisted treatment, but we still need better ways to treat opioid addiction and manage pain in an effective, personalized way. This historic investment by NIH was made possible by funding secured from Congress by President Trump, and will support our work in the current crisis and lay the work for a healthier future."

"It's clear that a multi-pronged scientific approach is needed to reduce the risks of opioids, accelerate development of effective non-opioid therapies for pain and provide more flexible and effective options for treating addiction to opioids," added NIH Director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., who created the initiative early last year. "This unprecedented investment in the NIH HEAL Initiative demonstrates the commitment to reversing this devastating crisis."

• Report: Opioids Settlement Won't Fix Areas Hardest Hit
• UN: Two-Thirds of Drug-Related Deaths in 2017 From Opioid Use