Pain management research from the NIH HEAL Initiative

This article presents an overview of the pain research programs within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Helping to End Addiction Long-term (R) Initiative, or NIH HEAL Initiative (R). Launched in 2018 to address the opioid crisis, the NIH HEAL Initiative supports research on addiction prevention and treatment. A key component of addiction prevention is the development of new, effective, non-addictive treatments for acute and chronic pain. HEAL's innovate research portfolio spans the spectrum from therapeutic discovery and development through clinical trials and into clinical practice.