Causes And Outcomes Of Drug Addiction Epidemic Essay

In the past four decades, drug addictions have become a tremendous but taboo disease in America. According to a study by the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health published in Science, death rates from drug overdoses in the U. S. have been growing exponentially since they were first reported in their own category in 1979 and are expected to continue on this same rising curve for years to come. Senior author Donald S. Burke, M. D. , the Pitt Public Health dean explains that while trying to find the root of the epidemic, his team hit a dead end. They found that although use in certain drugs like Cocaine, Methadone are decreasing, other drugs like Methamphetamine and both synthetic and prescribed opioids are increasing. Causes And Outcomes Of Drug Addiction Epidemic Essay.

When looking at demographics such as race, age, gender and geographic location they also found many variants which didn’t lead to an easy explanation of the increase. Burke and his researchers, however, have a few theories that an increase in feelings of purposelessness and increase of drug availability could be feeding the epidemic. Still, Burke remains hopeful, saying “If we understand and address these root causes at the same time that we take on the opioid crisis, we should be able to curb the epidemic for good. ” But what causes an addiction in the first place? This question can be answered by the biochemistry that makes up all human brains. In the 1930’s when researches began studying additions, they believed that addiction was cause by a lack of willpower because the subject was fundamentally flawed morally but since then modern neurobiology has revealed that addiction is a chronic disease that changes both brain structure and function, effecting the brain in three ways: craving the addiction, loss of control of use, and continuing usage despite negative consequences. It all begins with the neurotransmitter called dopamine.

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Dopamine is released into the Nucleus accumbens, a cluster of nerve cells lying underneath the Cerebral Cortex or as neuroscientists call it “the brain’s pleasure center”, whenever humans experience any pleasure, even with things so simple as buying a candy bar. Addictive drugs corrupt this system by creating a shortcut to the Nucleus accumbens by flooding the brain with dopamine faster than in any natural pleasures. Causes And Outcomes Of Drug Addiction Epidemic Essay.Because of this the Hippocampus, the part of the brain that creates memories, memorizes the rapid feeling of satisfaction and the Amygdala makes a habituated response to this new stimulant. This new stimulation can happen with and any pleasure, for example alcohol, but with drugs the connection between the dopamine and the Hippocampus is stronger because of the speed, intensity and reliability of the release of dopamine.

In fact, Harvard Health explains “Smoking a drug or injecting it intravenously, as opposed to swallowing it as a pill, for example, generally produces a faster, stronger dopamine signal and is more likely to lead to drug misuse. ” So the more intense the pleasure, the more satisfaction the brain feels. Excess dopamine not only creates an intense amount of pleasure but also effects the brain’s learning and memory. This is where the desire becomes an addiction. The dopamine interacts with glutamate, to control the brain’s reward-related learning system. This system, when working properly, relates activities needed for human survival to pleasure and reward, motivating humans to do what they need to survive, but addictive drugs stimulate this system too. After the first few times the pleasure from addictive drugs is experienced, the brain rewires itself to include drugs as part of “survival” because the nerve cells in the Nucleus accumbens and the Prefrontal Cortex, the area of the brain involved in planning and executing tasks, to communicate in a way that turns liking something with needing it.

The euphoric sensation of addictive drugs doesn’t last forever. Because these drugs can produce two to ten times as much dopamine as natural pleasures do, the brain receptors aren’t accustomed to that much dopamine regularly, so they become overwhelmed and the brain begins to produce less natural dopamine. In even more extreme cases the brain eliminates dopamine receptors all together, but either way this adaption of the brain makes all pleasures, natural and drug-induced less pleasurable. The brain still seeks the pleasure but because of the tolerance to the drug it must have higher and higher quantities to attain the original feeling, but nothing quite fills it. The brain is left wanting something it can never again reach. Causes And Outcomes Of Drug Addiction Epidemic Essay.

Since the Hippocampus and the Amygdala still associate certain environmental cues with the drug’s pleasure, even seeing something that reminds the brain of the drug can cause an intense craving or even relapse into addiction after the pleasure is gone, similar to Pavlov’s drooling dogs. The drugs that create an addiction all have one thing in common; they are alkaloids. Alkaloids contain “at least one nitrogen atom in an amine-type structure—i. e. , one derived from ammonia by replacing hydrogen atoms with hydrogen-carbon groups called hydrocarbons. ” In other words, alkaloids are a category of natural chemicals that are derived from various types of plants such as poppies, cacao beans, potatoes and cauliflower.

Although many alkaloids are beneficial in various medicines, separated from their respective plant the alkaloids form many addictive compounds including Caffeine, Nicotine, Cocaine, Morphine, and synthetic alkaloids include LSD and Heroin. It is theorized that certain plants began to produce these chemicals as a type of natural pesticide. This theory was unknowingly introduced around fifty years ago by biologists Paul R. Ehrlich and Peter H. Raven in their paper Butterflies and Plants: A study in coevolution in the journal Evolution. Their paper explained how plants use compounds as defensive molecules and that butterflies and certain plants (plants containing alkaloids) live in a coevolutionary relationship.

So, if the butterflies evolved to resist the chemical in those plants, the plants would evolve, creating a stronger chemical. These chemicals target proteins not only affect the physiology in the nervous system of butterflies and other insects, but humans as well because all nervous systems share similar molecular properties. Each of these chemical compounds effect the brain differently. Although many of these chemical compounds are either toxic or psychoactive, most of the addictive drugs that have caused the drug epidemic come from plants that create alkaloids. Even though many addictive drugs have been used for thousands of years, only in the last few decades have scientist researched ways to end addiction because for so long it was believed that addictions come from psychological problems not neurological problems. Causes And Outcomes Of Drug Addiction Epidemic Essay. A recent study from the University of Bath suggests that the cure for drug addiction involve treating the memory process.

The mission of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) is to advance science on the causes and consequences of drug use and addiction and to apply that knowledge to improve individual and public health. In this regard, NIDA addresses the most fundamental and essential questions about drug abuse — from detecting and responding to emerging drug abuse trends and understanding how drugs work in the brain and body, to developing and testing new approaches to treatment and prevention. NIDA also supports research training, career development, public education, public-private partnerships, and research dissemination efforts. Through its Intramural Research Program, as well as grants and contracts to investigators at research institutions around the country and overseas, NIDA supports research to:

• Identify the biological, environmental, behavioral and social causes and consequences of drug use and addiction across the lifespan;
• Develop improved strategies to prevent drug use and its consequences;
• Develop new and improved treatments to help people with substance use disorders achieve and maintain a meaningful and sustained recovery;
• Increase the public health impact of NIDA research and programs

In line with these goals, NIDA works to ensure that the following cross-cutting themes are addressed across institute programs and initiatives:

• advancing basic research on neuroscience and biology
• leveraging technology
• driving innovation
• increasing scientific rigor and reproducibility
• building a strong, diverse, multidisciplinary scientific workforce
• promoting collaboration
• encouraging data and resource sharing (data harmonization)
• supporting health equality
• increasing the real-world relevance of research (translation)

Important Events in NIDA History

1935 — A research facility is established in Lexington, KY, as part of a U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) hospital. It became the Addiction Research Center in 1948.

1972 — Drug Abuse Warning Network and National Household Survey on Drug Abuse are initiated under the Special Action Office for Drug Abuse Prevention.

1974 — NIDA is established as the Federal focal point for research, treatment, prevention, training, services, and data collection on the nature and extent of drug abuse.

National Drug and Alcohol Treatment Unit Survey begins to identify the location, scope, and characteristics of public and private drug prevention and treatment programs.

1975 — The Monitoring the Future Survey, also known as the High School Senior Survey, is initiated to measure prevalence and trends of non-medical drug use and related attitudes of high school seniors and young adults. Causes And Outcomes Of Drug Addiction Epidemic Essay.

NIDA begins its “Research Monograph Series.” Each monograph contains scientific papers that discuss a variety of subjects, including drug abuse treatment and prevention research.

1976 — NIDA establishes the Community Epidemiology Work Group, made up of state and local representatives meeting semiannually with NIDA staff to assess recent drug abuse trends and to identify populations at risk.

1979 — The clinical research program moves from Lexington, KY, to the campus of the Francis Scott Key Medical Center (later Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center) in Baltimore, MD. The basic science program follows in 1985.

NIDA sponsors the Treatment Outcome Prospective Study (TOPS), which continues through 1987 to evaluate the overall effectiveness of treatment and to identify certain factors as important determinants of drug abuse treatment success, such as length of time in treatment.

1985 — NIDA publishes the first issue of its bimonthly newsletter, NIDA Notes.

1986 — The dual epidemics of drug abuse and HIV/AIDS are recognized by Congress and the Administration, resulting in a quadrupling of NIDA funding for research on both major diseases.

1987 — NIDA initiates the National AIDS Demonstration Research projects to study and change the high-risk behaviors of injection drug users not enrolled in drug treatment and their sex partners.

1990 — NIDA establishes the Medications Development Program, focusing on developing new medications for treating addiction.

1991 — The Monitoring the Future Survey is expanded to include 8th and 10th graders.

NIDA begins data collection for the Drug Abuse Treatment Outcome Study (the successor to TOPS) to assess the effectiveness of treatment in reducing drug abuse and to identify predictors of drug abuse treatment success.

NIDA holds its first research technology transfer conference in Washington, DC: “National Conference on Drug Abuse Research and Practice: An Alliance for the 21st Century.”

1992 — NIDA joins the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

1993 — The Institute obtains approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for levomethadyl acetate (LAAM), the first medication approved in a decade for the treatment of opioid addiction. Although the FDA approval was an important milestone in medications development, subsequent findings revealed more effective treatment options for opioid abuse, resulting in a consensus that the use of LAAM should be discontinued.

1995 — NIDA researchers clone the dopamine transporter, cocaine’s primary site of action in the brain.

The Institute holds the first “National Conference on Marijuana Use: Prevention, Treatment, and Research” in Arlington, VA.

1996 — NIDA dedicates the Regional Brain Imaging Center located at the Institute’s intramural research center in Baltimore.

1997 — NIDA releases Preventing Drug Use Among Children and Adolescents: A Research-Based Guide, which describes the most successful concepts for preventing drug abuse among young people.

The Institute sponsors “Heroin Use and Addiction: A National Conference on Prevention, Treatment, and Research,” in Washington, DC. Causes And Outcomes Of Drug Addiction Epidemic Essay.

In partnership with the Entertainment Industries Council (EIC), NIDA launches the annual PRISM awards for accurate depiction of drugs, alcohol, and tobacco in feature films and television productions.

1998 — NIDA launches the “NIDA Goes to School” initiative to provide middle school students with accurate information on how drugs affect the brain. As a part of this initiative, more than 18,000 middle schools across the country received a compilation of resource materials.

1999 — In collaboration with the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, NIDA creates the Transdisciplinary Tobacco Use Research Centers for studying tobacco use and new ways to combat it and its consequences.

NIDA launches its National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network to rapidly and efficiently test the effectiveness of behavioral and pharmacological treatments in real-world treatment settings.

NIDA releases Principles of Drug Addiction Treatment: A Research-Based Guide, developed for use in local communities. The guide describes the most successful concepts for treating people with drug abuse and addiction problems.

2000 — NIDA distributes its “Clinical Toolbox,” a collection of the latest comprehensive, science-based publications on drug addiction and its treatment.

2001 — The Institute launches the National Prevention Research Initiative to stimulate research that will fill critical gaps in the knowledge and use of science-based drug abuse prevention strategies in communities across the country.

2002 — The Institute launches the new peer-reviewed journal Science and Practice Perspectives to encourage more collaboration between researchers and practitioners.

The FDA approves buprenorphine for the treatment of opioid dependence. NIDA, in collaboration with the pharmaceutical industry, supported the development of this medication, which can be prescribed in a physician’s office. This is a watershed event in the treatment of chronic opioid addiction, which previously required daily visits to specialized clinics for methadone dispensing.

With support from eight partner agencies in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of Justice, NIDA launches a major research initiative called the Criminal Justice Drug Abuse Treatment Studies (CJ-DATS). The goal of CJ-DATS is to establish a research infrastructure to develop and test models for an integrated approach to the treatment of incarcerated individuals with drug abuse or addictive disorders.

NIDA releases a new elementary school curriculum, Brain Power! The NIDA Junior Scientist Program, for use in second- and third-grade classrooms.

NIDA teams with Scholastic, a leading provider of educational materials for children and teachers, in launching a project to bring science-based information about drug abuse to millions of U.S. school children.

NIDA releases Principles of HIV Prevention in Drug-Using Populations: A Research-Based Guide to help communities prevent the spread of HIV.

2003 — NIDA releases its newly updated publication, Preventing Drug Use among Children and Adolescents: A Research-Based Guide for Parents, Educators, and Community Leaders, Second Edition, which reflects NIDA’s expanded research program and knowledge base in the area of drug abuse prevention. Causes And Outcomes Of Drug Addiction Epidemic Essay.

NIDA launches its “NIDA Goes Back to School” campaign and “NIDA for Teens” website in an effort to keep parents, teachers, and teenagers informed about the science behind drug abuse.

NIDA seeks to address the gap that exists in the drug abuse treatment field between clinical practice and basic scientific investigation through the establishment of its “Blending” series of meetings. The 2003 meeting was titled “Blending Clinical Practice and Research: Forging Partnerships in the Rocky Mountain States to Enhance Drug Addiction Treatment.”

2004 — NIDA collaborates with the Drug Enforcement Administration and other Federal agencies to design a traveling museum exhibit, which debuted in New York City. This exhibit draws attention to the social, economic, and medical consequences associated with drug abuse.

2005 — NIDA expands efforts to understand how drugs of abuse influence brain development through new research initiatives and collaborations with other NIH Institutes on pediatric neuroimaging studies.

NIDA launches an HIV/AIDS campaign to raise awareness regarding the link between drug abuse and HIV transmission. As a part of this effort, NIDA develops a public service announcement that is aired across the Nation and displayed in Washington DC’s Metro system. NIDA also develops a dedicated website, creates a “Research Report,” and holds a scientific meeting on drug abuse and HIV/AIDS. A Spanish version of the public service announcement is developed for distribution the following year.

2006 — NIDA launches its Principles of Drug Abuse Treatment for Criminal Justice Populations: A Research-Based Guide, summarizing proven components for successfully treating drug abusers who have entered the criminal justice system.

2007 — NIDA, in collaboration with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), releases five Blending Team products to facilitate the adoption of effective research-based treatment by community practitioners. Products include education and training materials on: treatment protocols using buprenorphine, motivational interviewing, motivational incentives, and the Addiction Severity Index for treatment planning.

NIDA releases its first plain-language booklet explaining the science behind addiction. Drugs, Brains, & Behavior — The Science of Addiction discusses the reasons people take drugs, why some people become addicted while others do not, how drugs work in the brain, and how addiction can be prevented and treated.

NIDA joins with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), and HBO to produce the Emmy Award-winning documentary titled “Addiction,” which explores many elements of drug and alcohol addiction through the eyes of those who are addicted and features the insights of scientific experts working to better understand and treat this devastating disease.

NIDA holds the first national “Drug Facts Chat Day.” High school students in schools from 49 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Guam submitted over 36,000 questions on a wide range of drug abuse-related topics.

2008 — NIDA launches its Avant-Garde Award to support HIV/AIDS-focused investigators of exceptional creativity who propose bold and highly innovative research approaches that have the potential to produce a major impact on treatment and/or prevention

NIDA launches the first annual Addiction Science award, with Scholastic as co-sponsor (and in subsequent years with Friends of NIDA), at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), the world’s largest science competition for high school students. Three Addiction Science awards were given to talented high school scientists to foster their interest in addiction research.Causes And Outcomes Of Drug Addiction Epidemic Essay.

2009 — NIDA launches a comprehensive Physicians Outreach Initiative, NIDAMED, which gives medical professionals tools and resources to screen their patients for tobacco, alcohol, illicit, and nonmedical prescription drug use, including an interactive online drug abuse screening tool — the NIDA-modified ASSIST.

NIDA unveils a series of new teaching tools, through its Centers of Excellence for Physician Information Program (NIDA CoEs). The new NIDA CoE curriculum resources provide scientifically accurate information on substance abuse, addiction and its consequences to help meet the educational needs of medical students, residents and medical school faculty.

NIDA sponsors a virtual town hall meeting, bringing together representatives from key federal agencies involved in preventing and combating substance abuse in the United States. Participants were linked via satellite from Washington, DC, to Camden, Maine, where members of five local communities, as well as community leaders from Freeport, Illinois, and Quincy, Washington, talked about their success in implementing the Communities That Care (CTC) system aimed at keeping youth safe from drugs.

NIDA-funded research, published in the October issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, shows promise for treating cocaine addiction. The study is the first successful, placebo-controlled demonstration of a vaccine against an illicit drug of abuse.

NIDA’s director, Dr. Nora Volkow, was awarded the International Prize from the French Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM) for her pioneering work in brain imaging and addiction science.

2010 — NIDA collaborates with the Department of Veteran Affairs and two NIH institutes to award 11 research institutions in 11 states more than $6 million in federal funding to support research on substance abuse and associated problems among U.S. military personnel, veterans, and their families. Causes And Outcomes Of Drug Addiction Epidemic Essay.

NIDA launches its Avant-Garde Medications Development Research Award designed to support researchers whose innovative approaches could have a major impact on the development of addiction medications. The newly launched research competition is an extension of NIDA’s successful Avant-Garde Award for Innovative HIV/AIDS Research.

Two developments in the treatment of opioid addiction herald important advances for addressing this worldwide epidemic: The FDA approves Vivitrol, a long-acting injectable form of naltrexone, for opioid dependence, which could address compliance issues of oral naltrexone by allowing for once a month dosing. Similarly, a study reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows promising findings for a long-acting implantable formulation of buprenorphine (Probuphine). NIDA is supporting further research on the clinical efficacy of Probuphine.

NIDA launches three new curriculum resources for NIDAMED’s Centers of Excellence for Physician Information Program: an objective structured clinical exam on opioid risk management; a lecture presentation on how to talk to patients about sensitive subjects, including drug/alcohol abuse, intimate partner violence, and sexual history/concerns; and a methamphetamine lecture and interclerkship that introduces learners to methamphetamine abuse and dependence.

NIDA launches its first annual National Drug Facts Week (NDFW), a health observance week for teens aimed to shatter the myths about drugs. Through community-based events around the country and activities on the Web, on TV and through music, NIDA encouraged teens to get factual answers from scientific experts about drugs and drug abuse. Efforts included a collaboration with MusiCares® and the GRAMMY Foundation® to create the Teen Substance Abuse Awareness through Music Contest; the development of a new booklet Drug Facts: Shatter the Myths, a National IQ Challenge Quiz, as well as numerous media outreach efforts that reached millions nationwide.

NIDA launches pages on Facebook and Twitter, two widely viewed social networking websites. NIDA posts on both platforms highlight a variety of topics, including press releases, program initiatives, drug facts, research updates and other news of interest.

2011 — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health announce a joint, large-scale, national study of tobacco use to monitor and assess the behavioral and health impacts of new government tobacco regulations.  Causes And Outcomes Of Drug Addiction Epidemic Essay.The initiative, called The Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study will follow more than 40,000 people with a focus on users of tobacco-products and those at risk for tobacco product use ages 12 and older in the United States.

NIDA launches the Addiction Performance Project (APP), a CME & CE program to help break down the stigma associated with addiction and promote a healthy dialogue that fosters compassion, cooperation, and understanding for patients living with this disease. This project is part of NIDA’s outreach to practicing health professionals and those in training. Each performance begins with a dramatic reading of Act III of Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night by award-winning professional actors, followed by a brief expert panel reaction and facilitated audience discussion. Lead actresses have Debra Winger, Blythe Danner, Dianne Wiest, and Kathryn Erbe. The APP performances appeared in Washington, DC; Phoenix, AZ; Boston, MA; Denver, Co; Chicago, Il, and Philadelphia, PA.

NIDA, along with the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM), launches a free, nationwide service to help primary care providers seeking to identify and advise substance-abusing patients. The service, Physician Clinical Support System for Primary Care (PCSS-P), offers peer-to-peer mentorship and resources on incorporating screening and follow-up into regular patient care. NIDA also launches the NIDA Quick Screen, a single question screening tool, to facilitate screening for drug use in primary care settings. Both tools are part of the NIDAMED program. Causes And Outcomes Of Drug Addiction Epidemic Essay.

NIDA launches PEERx, an updated prescription drug section on its teen Web site for teens to find interactive videos and other tools that help them make decisions about abusing prescription drugs based on real life situations they encounter at school and in life.

NIDA’s award-winning peer-reviewed journal, Addiction Science & Clinical Practice (AS&CP), moves to Biomed Central (BMC), but remains available on the web at no charge. NIDA’s news and analysis of research findings in its bi-monthly NIDA Notes is also transitioned to an all web format.

2012 — NIDA launches Family Checkup, an online resource that equips parents with research-based skills to help keep their children drug-free.

To address the complex problem of prescription opioid abuse, NIDA, in partnership with the Office of National Drug Control Policy and Medscape, launches online continuing medical education (CME)courses for health care providers on proper prescribing and patient management practices for opioid analgesics (painkillers). The CME courses, which include video vignettes modeling doctor-patient conversations on the safe and effective use of opioid pain medications, are part of NIDA’s NIDAMEDinitiative, created to help physicians, medical interns and residents, and other clinicians understand and address substance abuse in their practices. To broaden the use of the NIDAMED tools and resources, NIDA’s drug use screening tool was modified to be fully accessible from mobile devices. Causes And Outcomes Of Drug Addiction Epidemic Essay.

NIDA launches an easy-to-read website on drug abuse designed for adults with a low reading literacy level (eighth grade or below), which provides plain language information on neuroscience, drug abuse, and prevention and treatment, and is also a resource for adult literacy educators.

NIDA launches a new publication, Seeking Drug Abuse Treatment: Know What to Ask, to help individuals and families struggling with addiction to ask the right questions before choosing a drug treatment program.

2013 — NIDA partners with AstraZeneca to explore a medication to treat drug addiction. The scientific partnership will explore a specific molecule that modulates the activity of glutamate — an excitatory neurotransmitter. Preclinical studies with this class of molecule indicate that it could be effective for treating a range of disorders, including drug addiction.

NIDA signs a Memorandum of Intent with the Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM) — the French scientific and technological institute focusing on human health — to strengthen cooperation in basic and clinical research and research training, specifically in the areas of neuroscience and psychiatry.

NIDA launches the Juvenile Justice Translational Research on Interventions for Adolescents in the Legal System (JJ-TRIALS). As part of this cooperative, seven research centers will collaborate to determine how juvenile justice programs can effectively adopt science-based prevention and treatment services for drug abuse and HIV.

NIDA, NIAAA, and NCI form the Collaborative Research on Addiction at NIH (CRAN). This partnership will integrate resources and expertise to advance the science and treatment of substance abuse and addiction.

NIDA partners with Lightlake Therapeutics Inc. to apply new technology for treating opioid overdose via intranasal naloxone.

2014 — NIDA launches a new online publication,Principles of Adolescent Substance Use Disorder Treatment: A Research Based Guide, which describes evidence-based treatment approaches for teens.

NIDA’s Centers of Excellence (COE) for Physician Information develop a new medical educational module: Substance Use Disorders in Adolescents: Screening and Engagement in Primary Care Settings(link is external). It was created to increase early health care provider screening of teen substance abuse and includes videos demonstrating skills to use in screening teens at risk for or already struggling with substance use disorders.

NIDA Director Nora Volkow is lead author on a commentary in The New England Journal of Medicine on April 24, 2014 calling upon health care providers to expand their use of medications such as methadone, buprenorphine or naltrexone, to treat opioid addiction and reduce overdose deaths. The commentary, co-authored by leaders across the U.S. Causes And Outcomes Of Drug Addiction Epidemic Essay. Department of Health and Human Services, describes misperceptions that have limited access to these potentially life-saving medications, and discusses how medications can be used successfully in combination with behavior therapies.

NIDA, along with NIAAA, NICHD and NCI calls on the research community for help in designing The National Longitudinal Study of the Neurodevelopmental Consequences of Substance Use. The goal of the large-scale study is to establish the effects of occasional or regular use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs on the brains and lives of young Americans.

The first curriculum resource is released by the NIH Pain Consortium’s Centers of Excellence in Pain Education program (CoEPEs), coordinated by NIDA. The online training module was designed for the evaluation and care of chronic pain and was found to greatly improve medical student clinical skills. The CoEPE program was developed in response to the Affordable Care Act’s mandate to advance the science, research, care and education of pain.

NIDA staff publish a review in The New England Journal of Medicine on June 4, 2014, summarizing the current state of science on the adverse health effects of marijuana. The review describes the science establishing that marijuana can be addictive and that this risk for addiction increases for daily or young users.It also offers insights into research on the gateway theory indicating that marijuana use, similar to nicotine and alcohol use, may be associated with an increased vulnerability to other drugs.

A new NIDA-supported dataset now allows researchers to compare their MRI-based scans against more than 10,000 brain images, thereby enhancing reliability and reproducibility. The Consortium for Reproducibility and Reliability (CoRR) dataset is managed by the Child Mind Institute (CMI).

NIDA announces the development of an innovative National Drug Early Warning System (NDEWS) to monitor emerging nation-wide drug trends. NDEWS will help health experts respond quickly to potential outbreaks of illicit drugs such as heroin and to identify increased use of designer synthetic compounds.

2015 — NIDA launches the Avenir Award programs for HIV/AIDS and genetics or epigentics research. The Avenir (meaning “future” in French) Awards support early stage investigators who propose highly innovative studies. Causes And Outcomes Of Drug Addiction Epidemic Essay.

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Along with other NIH collaborators, NIDA awards 13 grants to research institutions around the country as part of a landmark study about the effects of adolescent substance use on the developing brain. The Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study will follow approximately 10,000 children beginning at ages 9 to 10, before they initiate drug use, through the period of highest risk for substance use and other mental health disorders.

Joining forces with NIAAA, NIDA expands its annual health observance week launched in 2010 to include alcohol. The “National Drug and Alcohol Facts Week” partnership allows teachers and other event organizers to access resources for drugs and alcohol all in one place.

NIDA reorganizes its divisional structure to integrate its research portfolio, promote translational research and increase efficiencies. The new structure incorporates research on clinical neuroscience, brain development and behavioral treatment development into existing and new formed components of NIDA divisions.

Intranasal naloxone –a nasal spray formulation of the medication designed to rapidly reverse opioid overdose –is approved by the FDA. The new technology has an easy-to-use, needle-free design, providing family members, caregivers and first responders with an alternative to injectable naloxone for use during a suspected opioid overdose. The product, developed through a partnership between NIDA and Lightlake Therapeutics, is marketed under the brand name NARCAN® Nasal Spray.

NIDA releases its Strategic Plan for 2016-2020: Advancing Addiction Science. Causes And Outcomes Of Drug Addiction Epidemic Essay.