American Pain Society Endorses NIH Initiative to Curb Opioid Addiction
CHICAGO, April 10, 2018 – The American Pain Society (APS) today endorsed aggressive action by the National Institutes of Health to accelerate scientific solutions to help resolve the nation’s opioid crisis by doubling funding for research on opioid misuse and pain management.
On April 4, NIH Director Francis S. Collins, MD, PhD announced the Helping to End Addiction Long-term Initiative to combat the opioid crisis. The agency will allocate $1.1 billion in fiscal year 2018, up from $600 million in 2016. Dr. Collins pledged: “NIH is committed to bringing the full power of the biomedical research enterprise to bear on this crisis.”
APS President William Maixner, DDS, PhD, said APS for many years has advocated for increased federal funding for pain research to foster discoveries of new therapies that will be viable alternatives to opioids. “The American Pain Society applauds NIH for significantly increasing funds earmarked for pain research and for taking meaningful steps forward in implementing a key recommendation of the National Pain Strategy,” said Maixner. “Inadequate pain research funding has stalled innovation in finding new therapies. Now the barrier at last has been lowered, and we look forward to participating in a pain research renaissance to finally end the opioids scourge that plagues our nation.”
About the American Pain Society
Based in Chicago, the American Pain Society (APS) is a multidisciplinary community that brings together a diverse group of scientists, clinicians and other professionals to increase the knowledge of pain and transform public policy and clinical practice to reduce pain-related suffering. APS is the professional home for investigators involved in all aspects of pain research including basic, translational, clinical and health services research to obtain the support and inspiration they need to flourish professionally. APS strongly advocates expansion of high quality pain research to help advance science to achieve effective and responsible pain relief. For more information on APS, visit www.americanpainsociety.org.
