En español
NIDA
Home » News & Events » Nora's Blog

Nora's Blog

Featured Post

Illustration of rats in a maze

New NIDA Research Reveals the Power of Social Reinforcers

October 15, 2018
Medication is a crucial part of treating addiction—but by itself, a pill or an injection may not be sufficient. Social support has long been known to be an important factor in a variety of recovery programs and treatment approaches. Read More.

1 Comment

Recent Posts

Photo of tobacco leaves drying

Recent Research Sheds New Light on Why Nicotine is So Addictive

September 2018
Nicotine does not produce the kind of euphoria or impairment that many other drugs like opioids and marijuana do. People do not get high from smoking cigarettes or vaping. Yet nicotine’s powerful ability to reinforce its relatively mild rewards results in 480,000 deaths annually. Read More.

3 Comments
NIH HEAL (Helping to End Addiction Long-term) Initiative

The HEALing Communities Study: Using Science to Address the Opioid Crisis

September 2018
The public health emergency of opioid misuse and addiction affects millions of Americans and requires innovative scientific solutions. Today, during “National Prescription Opioid and Heroin Awareness Week,” we are sharing news of an important step towards these solutions through the HEALing Communities Study. Read More.

3 Comments
Doctor holding clipboard

How Can We Better Support Physicians in Addressing the Opioid Crisis?

August 2018
Ample evidence shows methadone and buprenorphine reduce overdose deaths, prevent the spread of diseases like HIV, and enable people to take back their lives, but there are restrictions on who can prescribe these medications. Read More.

5 Comments
Dental repairs

NIH Partners with the Dental Community to Help Curb the Opioid Crisis

July 2018
Reducing healthcare’s reliance on potentially addictive opioid pain relievers has been one of the pillars of federal efforts to reverse the opioid crisis. Read More.

3 Comments
Photo of lab equipment picking up test tube.

FDA Approves First Drug Derived from Marijuana

July 2018
This week, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Epidiolex (cannabidiol, or CBD), a medication extracted from marijuana, for the treatment of two severe pediatric seizure disorders. Read More.

3 Comments
Word cloud of NIH HEAL initiative

An Ambitious Research Plan to Help Solve the Opioid Crisis

June 2018
In spring 2018, Congress added an additional $500 million to the NIH budget to invest in science to find solutions to the opioid crisis. The funding that NIDA is receiving will go toward the goal of addressing addiction in new ways and better delivering existing forms of care to populations that need it. Read More.

4 Comments
Image of drug Lucemyra (Lofexidine)

NIDA-Supported Science Leads to First FDA-Approved Medication for Opioid Withdrawal

May 2018
This week, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved lofexidine, the first medication targeted specifically to treat the physical symptoms associated with opioid withdrawal. Read More.

5 Comments
All of Us promo for NIH Study

Million-Participant NIH Study Could Yield Important Insights into Addiction and Pain

May 2018
New data-gathering and analytic capabilities are enabling the kinds of massive, long-term studies needed to investigate genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors that contribute to disease. Read More.

2 Comments
Image of a penny and a few specks of faux fentanyl to show lethality

The True, Deadly Scope of America’s Fentanyl Problem

May 2018
Today, a new analysis in JAMA by epidemiologists at NIDA and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration reveals the scope of the crisis, and the rapidity with which the opioid problem has broadened from prescription opioids and heroin to include their much more deadly synthetic cousins. Read More.

5 Comments
What Patients are Saying on a blackboard

Listening to Patients’ Voices in Developing New Opioid Addiction Treatments

April 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.

8 Comments

Pages

Dr. Nora Volkow: Remarks and Video Highlights

APA 2015 meeting

About This Blog

Dr. Nora Volkow

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

Comment & Guest Blog Policies
Receive Nora’s Blog Articles in your Email!
You will only receive messages related to Nora’s Blog