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These are graphics of brain scans showing the changes that happen in the brain when a child is successful at achieving a reward. Areas of the brain that are most active are highlighted in red and yellow.

NIDA's Scientific Findings & Achievements of 2018

January 07, 2019
As we enter 2019, it is a good time to take stock of what NIDA accomplished over the past year. As always when I look back at the research being done by NIDA grantees and partners, I am amazed at the wealth of knowledge being created from our investments. Here I want to highlight just a few of the many outstanding developments in basic science, new therapeutics, and epidemiology and prevention research from the year that just ended. Read More.

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Recent Posts

Word cloud of NIH HEAL initiative

An Ambitious Research Plan to Help Solve the Opioid Crisis

June 2018
In spring 2018, Congress added an additional $500 million to the NIH budget to invest in science to find solutions to the opioid crisis. The funding that NIDA is receiving will go toward the goal of addressing addiction in new ways and better delivering existing forms of care to populations that need it. Read More.

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Image of drug Lucemyra (Lofexidine)

NIDA-Supported Science Leads to First FDA-Approved Medication for Opioid Withdrawal

May 2018
This week, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved lofexidine, the first medication targeted specifically to treat the physical symptoms associated with opioid withdrawal. Read More.

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All of Us promo for NIH Study

Million-Participant NIH Study Could Yield Important Insights into Addiction and Pain

May 2018
New data-gathering and analytic capabilities are enabling the kinds of massive, long-term studies needed to investigate genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors that contribute to disease. Read More.

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Image of a penny and a few specks of faux fentanyl to show lethality

The True, Deadly Scope of America’s Fentanyl Problem

May 2018
Today, a new analysis in JAMA by epidemiologists at NIDA and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration reveals the scope of the crisis, and the rapidity with which the opioid problem has broadened from prescription opioids and heroin to include their much more deadly synthetic cousins. Read More.

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What Patients are Saying on a blackboard

Listening to Patients’ Voices in Developing New Opioid Addiction Treatments

April 2018
One of the pillars of the current federal initiatives to end the opioid crisis is the development of new medications to treat opioid addiction. The FDA Patient-Focused Drug Development Initiative (PFDD), established in 2012, seeks to solicit patient perspectives on which symptoms are most important to target. Read More.

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MRI scan of a brain

What Does It Mean When We Call Addiction a Brain Disorder?

March 2018
Informed Americans no longer view addiction as a moral failing, and more and more policymakers are recognizing that punishment is an ineffective and inappropriate tool for addressing a person’s drug problems. Treatment is what is needed. Read More.

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image of pregnant women

Could Naltrexone Be Used to Treat Pregnant Women with Opioid Addiction?

February 2018
A recent study published in Lancet found that extended-release naltrexone was equally effective at reducing illicit opioid use as the partial agonist buprenorphine if patients could be successfully initiated on naltrexone. Read More.

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Image of pipettes and gloved hands

NIDA’s Past-Year Achievements Point the Way Toward Future Advances

January 2018
2017 brought exciting new basic science findings, including some striking new insights into the structure and functioning of receptors that play important roles in substance use, addiction, and pain. Read More.

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Monitoring the future logo

Monitoring the Future Results Show Reduced Opioid Misuse but Popularity of Vaping Among Youth

December 2017
Today the results of the 2017 Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey were released by NIDA-funded researchers at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and overall the news is encouraging. Read More.

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World AIDS Day logo

NIDA’S Avant-Garde Award Competition Continues to Foster Transformative HIV/AIDS Research

December 2017
NIH-funded science continues to make great strides in the fight against HIV. To foster such research, 10 years ago NIDA created its Avant-Garde Award competition to fund bold projects that could have a high impact in preventing and treating HIV/AIDS in drug users. Read More.

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Dr. Nora Volkow: Remarks and Video Highlights

APA 2015 meeting

About This Blog

Dr. Nora Volkow

Here I highlight important work being done at NIDA and other news related to the science of drug use and addiction.
—Dr. Nora Volkow, Director

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