• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
Friday, October 3, 2025
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News Health

McLean Hospital received federal funding to help tackle national opioid crisis

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
October 8, 2019
in Health
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0
IMAGE
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

NIH funds nearly $1 billion in opioid-related research through NIH HEAL Initiative

IMAGE

Credit: McLean Hospital

As part of its efforts to reverse the opioid crisis that continues to grip the nation, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has named McLean Hospital as a recipient of a grant through the Helping to End Addiction Long-term Initiative (NIH HEAL Initiative). McLean’s award is one of 375 grant awards across 41 states–totaling nearly $1 billion–made by the NIH in fiscal year 2019 to apply scientific solutions to address the crisis.

In 2016, an estimated 50 million U.S. adults suffered from chronic pain, and in 2018, an estimated 10.3 million people 12 years and older in the United States misused opioids, including heroin. The trans-NIH research effort aims to improve treatments for chronic pain, curb the rates of opioid use disorder (OUD) and overdose, and achieve long-term recovery from opioid addiction.

“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,” said NIH Director Francis S. Collins, MD, PhD, who launched the initiative in early 2018. “This unprecedented investment in the NIH HEAL Initiative demonstrates the commitment to reversing this devastating crisis.”

“We need to ensure that people with chronic pain have effective treatment options that don’t expose them to the risk of opioids,” added Rebecca G. Baker, PhD, director, NIH HEAL Initiative. “Preventing opioid misuse and addiction through enhanced pain management and improving treatments for OUD and addiction are both critical parts of our trans-NIH response to the opioid crisis.”

McLean’s research, which is also part of the National Institute on Drug Abuse Clinical Trials Network, will focus on exploring ways to improve outcomes for patients who use evidence-based medications, specifically buprenorphine and naltrexone, to treat OUD.

McLean will partner with researchers from Columbia University and New York University to explore how to increase retention among patients who use these OUD treatments. According to the researchers, such retention is critical for helping more people achieve long-term recovery from OUD.

The research team will also study patients who have been successful with using these medications to treat their OUD and now want to taper off these medications. The researchers will seek to determine who can do this successfully and find optimal methods for doing it.

“We already have medications that are effective at treating OUD,” said Roger D. Weiss, MD, chief of the Substance Use Disorders Division and director of the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Clinical Research Program at McLean Hospital, who is also one of three lead investigators for the study. “However, staying on them isn’t always easy, and weaning off them, for those who choose to do so, can be very difficult. In general, we advise patients to stay on medications, but many people want to discontinue them despite that advice. Learning how to advise those patients is very important.”

The NIH HEAL Initiative is leveraging expertise from almost every NIH institute and center to approach the crisis from all angles and disciplines, and across the full spectrum of research from basic to implementation science in the areas of:

  • Translation of research to practice for the treatment of opioid use disorder
  • New strategies to prevent and treat opioid use disorder
  • Enhanced outcomes for infants and children exposed to opioids
  • Novel medication options for opioid use disorder and overdose
  • Clinical research in pain management
  • Preclinical and translational research in pain management

###

McLean Hospital has a continuous commitment to put people first in patient care, innovation and discovery, and shared knowledge related to mental health. In 2017 and 2018, it was named the #1 hospital for psychiatric care in the United States by U.S. News & World Report. McLean Hospital is the largest psychiatric affiliate of Harvard Medical School and a member of Partners HealthCare. For more information, please visit mcleanhospital.org or follow us on Facebook or Twitter.

Media Contact
Laura Neves
[email protected]
617-855-2110

Original Source

https://www.mcleanhospital.org/news?field_post_type_tid=17

Tags: AddictionBehaviorMedicine/HealthMental HealthSocial/Behavioral Science
Share12Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

Cutting-Edge Care: New Regional Training Hub Enhances Surgical Skills for an Ageing Population

October 3, 2025

New App Enhances Care for Inflammatory Bowel Disease

October 3, 2025

Countries with Highest Hearing Loss Rates Show Lowest Hearing Aid Usage

October 3, 2025

Home-Based Early Medical Abortion Up to 12 Weeks: Safe, Effective, and on Par with Hospital Care

October 3, 2025
Please login to join discussion

POPULAR NEWS

  • New Study Reveals the Science Behind Exercise and Weight Loss

    New Study Reveals the Science Behind Exercise and Weight Loss

    92 shares
    Share 37 Tweet 23
  • New Study Indicates Children’s Risk of Long COVID Could Double Following a Second Infection – The Lancet Infectious Diseases

    83 shares
    Share 33 Tweet 21
  • Physicists Develop Visible Time Crystal for the First Time

    74 shares
    Share 30 Tweet 19
  • How Donor Human Milk Storage Impacts Gut Health in Preemies

    65 shares
    Share 26 Tweet 16

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

Cutting-Edge Care: New Regional Training Hub Enhances Surgical Skills for an Ageing Population

Ultrafast Squeezed Light Advances Quantum Communication

New App Enhances Care for Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 60 other subscribers
  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.