Substance Use Disorder Trajectories and Outcomes Within the Broader Socio-Environmental Context: An NIH HEAL Initiative Workshop

Wed, 5/15/2024
Mon, 5/20/2024

Past event. This event already took place. View our upcoming events.

Overview

Recent advances have led to the development of multiple effective treatments for substance use disorder. However, long-term outcomes and recovery remain a challenge, in part due to low medication adherence and high dropout rates. It remains unclear to what extent long-term outcomes are influenced by individual-level variables, and how these influences might interact with the socio-environmental background in the context of relapse and recovery. There is growing consensus on the importance of considering the broader social context — including economic, cultural, and structural factors — on substance use disorder (SUD) outcomes. This is a cause for concern in SUD research, given known health disparities in substance use outcomes, particularly among Black and American Indian/Alaskan Native communities and as a result of socioeconomic inequities.

As a first step to address these questions, the NIH HEAL Initiative® convened a workshop to aid in the coordinated development of an enhanced recovery and social environmental research portfolio across National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) resulting in:

  • New models for clinical study
  • Additional outcomes in treatment and therapeutics
  • Increased efficacy in applied practice

The immediate goals of this workshop were to:

  1. Articulate a common set of operational goals for NIDA divisions to work from in the study of recovery, including:
    • Creating a common definition of recovery that is centered on lived and clinical experience, and includes the impact of individual, social, and environmental factors on recovery in underserved populations.
    • Translating recovery into clinical studies by defining measures across multiple domains (social environmental, behavioral, and neurobiological) with suggested time horizons, statistical power, and personalization of recovery measures, as well as identifying challenges that exist in obtaining these measurements.
  2. Identify gaps in recovery research and mechanistic models of recovery.

The workshop included four focused discussions of 50 experts across domains, including people with lived and living experience. This workshop was open to the public to view and comment.

Wednesday, May 15, 2024 — A Common Definition of Recovery

12:00–12:30 p.m. ET
Welcome and Housekeeping
Workshop Planning Committee:

  • John Fedota, Ph.D., NIDA
  • Carrie Mulford, Ph.D., NIDA
  • Vani Pariyadath, Ph.D., NIDA
  • Janani Prabhakar, Ph.D., NIDA
  • Shelley Su, Ph.D., NIDA
  • Jia Bei Wang, M.D., Ph.D., NIDA

Opening Remarks
Nora Volkow, M.D., Director, NIDA

12:30–2:00 p.m. ET
Lived/Living Experience Session
Discussion Facilitators:

Panelists:

2:00–2:15 p.m. ET
Break

2:15–3:45 p.m. ET
Applied Clinical Experience Session
Discussion Facilitators:

Panelists:

3:45–4:00 p.m. ET
Break

4:00–5:00 p.m. ET
Day 1 Wrap Up Discussion
 

Monday, May 20, 2024 — Translating Recovery Into Clinical Studies

12:00–12:15 p.m. ET 
Introduction and Review of Day 1 Themes
NIDA staff

12:15–1:45 p.m. ET
Translating Between Clinical and Research Findings Session
Discussion Facilitators:

Panelists:

1:45–2:00 p.m. ET
Break

2:00–3:30 p.m. ET
How to Measure and Model Recovery Session
Discussion Facilitators:

Panelists:

3:45–4:00 p.m. ET
Break

4:00–5:00 p.m. ET
Day 2 Wrap-Up Discussion and Workshop Summary

For More Information, Contact:

John Fedota, [email protected]