Opioid Use Disorders Research Collaboration
Mission: To develop treatments that allow greater understanding and response to the opioid epidemic in Maryland and nationwide, which will impact training, outreach, and policy.
MPower provided a three-year investment to launch a research collaboration matching leaders from UMB’s School of Medicine with UMCP’s Center for Substance Abuse Research and two dozen other schools and departments to seek solutions to address the opioid epidemic that kills thousands of Marylanders each year.
- Researchers study the effects of opioids in utero, so that better programs can be designed to help affected babies and their mothers.
- Newly developed curriculum trains medical students and veteran health care professionals to treat chronic pain while reducing further addiction.
- Other researchers use placebos to reduce methadone use and to study how behavioral training may allow chronic pain patients to reduce opioid intake.
- Data from overdose patients admitted to four emergency rooms are being studied to better understand opioid use in Maryland, tailor treatment, and alert public health officials to regional trends and community needs.
- A new study explores existing policies for women who are pregnant, addicted, and in the criminal justice system, and how to best treat mother and child.
