Today’s landscape of substance use poses both unique challenges and unprecedented opportunities to leverage the profound potential of science toward those goals. Like treatment for other chronic diseases such as heart disease or asthma, addiction treatment is not a cure, but a way of managing the condition. Treatment enables people to counteract addiction’s disruptive effects on their brain and behavior and regain control of their lives.
Innovative projects answer NIDA’s challenge to implement substance use prevention in primary care
The National Recovery Month webpage provides a host of resources that can be used to help promote the observance. For people with addictions to drugs like stimulants or cannabis, no medications are currently available to assist in treatment, so treatment consists of behavioral therapies. Treatment should be tailored to address each patient’s drug use patterns and drug-related medical, mental, and social problems.
Strategic Plan Framework
NIDA uses multiple sources to monitor the prevalence and trends regarding drug use in the United States. The resources on this webpage cover a variety of drug-related issues, including information on drug use, emergency room data, prevention and treatment programs, and other research findings. When people enter treatment, addiction has often caused serious consequences in their lives, possibly disrupting their health and how they function in their family lives, at work, and in the community. Additionally, medications are used to help people detoxify from drugs, although detoxification is not the same as treatment and is not sufficient to help a person recover.
- Treatment with methadone or buprenorphine is recommended for pregnant women with opioid use disorder.
- The National Recovery Month webpage provides a host of resources that can be used to help promote the observance.
- Patients at one California OTP in a small qualitative study reported increased autonomy and treatment engagement.
- If people stop following their medical treatment plan, they are likely to relapse.
- Importantly, evidence-based prevention strategies can help people avoid substance use and substance use disorders.
A study using data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) from 2019—that is, pre-pandemic—found that only slightly more than a quarter (27.8%) of people who needed OUD treatment in the past year had received medication to treat their disorder. But a year into the pandemic, in 2021, the proportion had dropped to just 1 in 5. Read more about how NIDA is advancing the science on effective prevention strategies. Different types of medications may be useful at different stages of treatment to help a patient stop abusing drugs, stay in treatment, and avoid relapse. NIDA is a biomedical research organization and does not provide personalized medical advice, treatment, counselling, or referral services.
Do medications for opioid use disorder interfere with pain treatment?
Recovery is a process of change through which people improve their health and wellness, live self-directed lives, and strive to reach their full potential. Even people with severe and chronic substance use disorders can, with help, overcome their illness and regain health and social function. Being in recovery is when those positive changes and values become part of a voluntarily adopted lifestyle. While many people in recovery believe that abstinence from all substance use is a cardinal feature of a recovery lifestyle, others report that handling negative feelings without using substances and living a contributive life are more important parts of their recovery. Behavioral therapies help people in drug addiction treatment modify their attitudes and behaviors related to drug use. As a result, patients are able to handle stressful situations and various triggers that might cause another relapse.
Counselors may select from a menu of services that meet the specific medical, mental, social, occupational, family, and legal needs of their patients to help in their recovery. Research shows that when treating addictions to opioids (prescription pain relievers or drugs like heroin or fentanyl), medication should be the first line of treatment, usually combined with some form of behavioral therapy or counseling. Medications are also available to help treat addiction to alcohol and nicotine. Patients themselves reported significant benefits from increased take-home methadone and other COVID-19 protocols. Patients at one California OTP in a small qualitative study reported increased autonomy and treatment engagement.
- National Recovery Month is a national observance that is held every September to educate Americans that substance use disorder treatment and mental health services can enable those with a mental and/or substance use disorders to live healthy and rewarding lives.
- Comprehensive assessment tools can reduce the chance of a missed diagnosis.
- Treatment enables people to counteract addiction’s disruptive effects on their brain and behavior and regain control of their lives.
Grants & Funding
Buprenorphine treatment may lead to better health outcomes for infants than methadone treatment. Research on the science of addiction and the treatment of substance use disorders has led to the development of research-based methods that help people to stop using drugs and resume productive lives, also known as being in recovery. Substance use disorders are chronic, treatable medical conditions from which people can recover. They are defined in part by continued substance use despite negative outcomes. Substance use disorders may be diagnosed as mild, moderate, or severe based on whether a person meets defined diagnostic criteria. Some people use the term to describe some substance use disorders, especially more serious presentations.
Many people—especially young people—use drugs out of curiosity and because of social pressure. The age at which people start using drugs—and whether or not they continue—depends on many different individual and societal factors across a person’s life. Over the past several years, the increasing prevalence of fentanyl in the drug supply has created an unprecedented overdose death rate and other devastating consequences.
Are medications for opioid use disorder addictive?
NIDA will continue to support cutting-edge research informed by people with lived experience across all facets of our scientific portfolio, while remaining nimble enough to take advantage of new scientific opportunities and address emerging public health needs. Buprenorphine treatment can also be started in the emergency department to ease withdrawal and cravings after an overdose.13 This can help motivate people to begin long-term treatment. Here I highlight important work being done at NIDA and other news related to the science of drug use and addiction. NIDA Director Dr. Nora Volkow explains why we study teen drug use and shares a message to parents & teen influencers. Watch artist and advocate William Stoehr’s intimate testimony, as he shares his story of loss to an opioid overdose and… Visual representations of Monitoring the Future data, opioid misuse and other topics.
Behavioral therapies can also enhance the effectiveness of medications and help people remain in treatment longer. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) advanced treatment and recovery national institute on drug abuse nida the most comprehensive Overdose Prevention Strategy to date. Under this strategy, in 2023, HHS eliminated the X-waiver requirement for buprenorphine. But in the fentanyl era, expanded access to methadone too is essential, although there are even greater attitudinal and structural barriers to overcome with this medication. People in methadone treatment, who must regularly visit an opioid treatment program (OTP), face stigma from their community and from providers. People in rural areas may have difficulty accessing or sticking with methadone treatment if they live far from an OTP.
Patients at three rural OTPs in Oregon reported increased self-efficacy, strengthened recovery, and reduced interpersonal conflict. NIDA also supports research to examine the social and economic impact of certain laws and policies in preventing substance use and its negative health effects. Together, this research helps policymakers and public health professionals make informed decisions to promote better health outcomes around substance use.
Do medications for opioid use disorder work?
Methadone may even be preferable for patients considered to be at high risk for leaving OUD treatment and overdosing on fentanyl. Comparative effectiveness evidence is emerging which shows that people with OUD in British Columbia given buprenorphine/naloxone when initiating treatment were 60% more likely to discontinue treatment than those who received methadone (1). More research is needed on optimal methadone dosing in patients with high opioid tolerance due to use of fentanyl, as well as on induction protocols for these patients.