HEAL Initiative: Integrative Management of chronic Pain and OUD for Whole Recovery (IMPOWR): Research Centers (RM1 Clinical Trial Required)

enter purposeChronic Non-Cancer Pain (CP) and Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) overlap significantly and patients with both conditions present particular clinical complexity. CP adversely impacts OUD treatment adherence and recovery, while the presence of dependence stigmatizes treatment services for chronic pain, often resulting in insufficient pain treatment. Fundamentally, the healthcare system lacks the expertise and effective interventions for managing comorbid CP and OUD, leaving patients suffering and at risk for poor outcomes. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) intends to establish a national network consisting of investigators conducting Collaborative research on Co-managing Chronic Pain and Opioid Use Disorder (C3PO), which will be supported by a Resource on Related DSM-5 Diagnoses (R2D2) Coordination and Dissemination center. This network is intended to facilitate multidisciplinary team science collaborations that can create actionable, translatable, and sustainable treatments to improve the capacity of the health care system to effectively respond to the opioid epidemic. The network will be part of the NIHs Helping to End Addiction Long-term (HEAL)SM Initiative to speed the development and implementation of scientific solutions to the national opioid public health crisis. The NIH HEAL Initiative will bolster research across NIH to (1) improve treatment and prevention of opioid misuse and opioid use disorder and (2) enhance pain management.