The NIH Hopes a New Study in 4 States Can Cut Opioid Deaths by 40%. Here ’s How

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) on Thursday announced an ambitious new study that’s meant to reduce opioid-related deaths by 40% in communities that have been hardest-hit by the ongoing epidemic. The NIH awarded grants to four research sites — the University of Kentucky, Boston Medical Center, Columbia University and Ohio State University — through the three-year, $350 million project, called the HEALing Communities Study. Each site will test the effectiveness of various strategies for combating and preventing opioid addiction in at least 15 communities in those states that are struggling with widespread substance misuse, with the goal of reducing opioid deaths in these areas by 40% over three years, the NIH says. In 2017, the most recent year with federal estimates available, nearly 50,000 Americans died after overdosing on opioids including heroin, prescription painkillers and the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl. The interventions that will be examined in the study include distributing opioid-overdose-reversing naloxone throughout the communities, helping individuals in the criminal justice system find substance abuse treatment and making addiction care part of regular doctor’s visits, according to the announcement. The announcement did not specify whether more politically controversial techniques, such as needle exchanges and safe injection facilities, would be studied. It did say, however, that research sites would track upticks in medi...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized onetime public health Research Source Type: news