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What Patients are Saying on a blackboard

Listening to Patients’ Voices in Developing New Opioid Addiction Treatments

April 05, 2018
One of the pillars of the current federal initiatives to end the opioid crisis is the development of new medications to treat opioid addiction. The FDA Patient-Focused Drug Development Initiative (PFDD), established in 2012, seeks to solicit patient perspectives on which symptoms are most important to target. Read More.

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Recent Posts

What Does It Mean When We Call Addiction a Brain Disorder?

March 2018
Informed Americans no longer view addiction as a moral failing, and more and more policymakers are recognizing that punishment is an ineffective and inappropriate tool for addressing a person’s drug problems. Treatment is what is needed. Read More.

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Could Naltrexone Be Used to Treat Pregnant Women with Opioid Addiction?

February 2018
A recent study published in Lancet found that extended-release naltrexone was equally effective at reducing illicit opioid use as the partial agonist buprenorphine if patients could be successfully initiated on naltrexone. Read More.

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NIDA’s Past-Year Achievements Point the Way Toward Future Advances

January 2018
2017 brought exciting new basic science findings, including some striking new insights into the structure and functioning of receptors that play important roles in substance use, addiction, and pain. Read More.

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Monitoring the Future Results Show Reduced Opioid Misuse but Popularity of Vaping Among Youth

December 2017
Today the results of the 2017 Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey were released by NIDA-funded researchers at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and overall the news is encouraging. Read More.

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NIDA’S Avant-Garde Award Competition Continues to Foster Transformative HIV/AIDS Research

December 2017
NIH-funded science continues to make great strides in the fight against HIV. To foster such research, 10 years ago NIDA created its Avant-Garde Award competition to fund bold projects that could have a high impact in preventing and treating HIV/AIDS in drug users. Read More.

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Mobilizing Citizen Science to Address the Overdose Epidemic

November 2017
Social media and crowdsourcing apps could be particularly useful for gathering and sharing information in real time about overdoses and using that information to prevent overdose deaths, thereby translating “citizen science” into “citizen prevention.” Read More.

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Illustration of a diverse crowd of people

Addressing the Opioid Crisis Means Confronting Socioeconomic Disparities

October 2017
When we speak of addiction as a chronic disorder of the brain, it thus includes an understanding that some individuals are more susceptible to drug use and addiction than others... Read More.

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Photo of researcher working with a pipette under a hood

New Medication Formulations Could Quickly Make a Difference for Treating Opioid Addiction

August 2017
As Francis Collins and I wrote in May, NIH and NIDA are committed to an “all scientific hands on deck” effort to end the opioid crisis in America by halving the time it takes to develop new medications to treat pain and addiction and reverse overdoses. Read More.

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The Concerning Link Between Inadequate Sleep and Adolescent Substance Use

July 2017
Children and adolescents require more sleep than adults. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) defines a sufficient night’s sleep for an adolescent as 8.5-9.5 hours per night. But according to data from the national Youth Risk Behavior Survey, just over a quarter of middle and high-school students (27.5 %) got 8 hours or more of sleep on the average night in 2015, and most got much less. Researchers have found striking links between insufficient sleep and a range of adverse outcomes in adolescents, including obesity, poor school performance, and behavioral problems including substance use. Read More.

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“All Scientific Hands on Deck” to End the Opioid Crisis

May 2017
In 2015, two million people had a prescription opioid use disorder and 591,000 suffered from a heroin use disorder; prescription drug misuse alone cost the nation $78.5 billion in healthcare, law enforcement, and lost productivity. But while the scope of the crisis is staggering, it is not hopeless. By Nora Volkow (Director, NIDA) and Francis Collins (Director, NIH) Read More.

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About This Blog

Here I highlight important work being done at NIDA and other news related to the science of drug abuse and addiction.
—Dr. Nora Volkow, Director

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Dr. Nora Volkow: Video Highlights

NIDA Director, Dr. Nora D. Volkow Videos

Charlie Rose, October 2017 - Opioid Addiction
Watch video (17:25)

National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA): Quality Talks, October 2016
Treating Addiction Within the Health Care System
Watch video (18:51)
APA TV, May 2016
APA TV chats with Dr. Nora Volkow, the Director of NIDA to hear about her lecture on drug abuse and the opioid epidemic.
Watch video (3:20)
Kentucky Educational Television, May 2016
One to One with Bill Goodman: Dr. Nora Volkow
Watch video (27:41)
TEDMED, January 2015
Why do our brains get addicted?
Watch video (16:23)
The World Science Festival, April 2014
The Moth: The Brain's Addiction - Nora Volkow
Watch video (17:01)
Rockburn Presents, November 2012
Dr. Nora Volkow
Watch video (29:32)
Brookhaven National Laboratory WBNL Video, October 2012
Chemistry celebration: FDG: Contribution to Our Understanding of Addiction
Watch video (43:05)
CBS 60 Minutes, April 2012
Hooked: Why Bad Habits Are Hard to Break
Watch video (13:31)
Science Times, June 2011
Dr. Nora Volkow
Watch video (8:19)

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