Stigma in Pain Management and Opioid Use Disorder

Overview

The Research Need

Stigma against individuals with a substance use disorder, pain, or both is a common barrier to healing. Widespread lack of information and understanding about mental or substance use disorders can lead to public attitudes of shame and blame. While stigma is hard to eliminate, HEAL research is finding solutions to mitigate stigma in its many forms toward improving health and preventing unnecessary deaths from overdose.

About the Program

NIH HEAL Initiative^® research targets stigma that occurs at many levels affecting people with opioid use disorder or chronic pain and which can prevent people from seeking and receiving treatment. Stigma can be internalized (when an individual believes and accepts others’ judgements) or it can come from peers (others in recovery). Healthcare providers also harbor stigma against treating certain types of patients they deem different than others, and health systems can amplify all of these types of stigma by perpetuating stereotypes and their negative consequences.

To date, through the NIH HEAL Initiative, NIH has funded eight awards for this program, totaling $1.7 million. See funded awards.

Examples of Stigma Research

• Developing stigma-reduction training using the Opioid Wizard clinical decision-support tool to reduce provider stigma.
• Testing the value of mobile apps to measure and overcome stigma associated with opioid use disorder.
• Interviewing cancer survivors and their healthcare providers to better understand sources of chronic pain stigma.
• Evaluating psychotherapy approaches to address stigma in people with both opioid use disorder and chronic pain.

Research Spotlights

• Reframing Shame
• Breaking Through the Wall of Stigma

Director's Messages

• Fighting Stigma Through Research

Other

• Words Matter – Terms to Use and Avoid When Talking About Addiction

• Increasing Participant Diversity, Inclusion and Engagement in HEAL
• Leveraging Existing and Real-Time Opioid and Pain Management Data
• Small Business Programs 
• Training the Next Generation of Researchers in HEAL
• Translating Data 2 Action to Prevent Overdose