The Pitt Division of General Internal Medicine has received a $5.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to facilitate opioid research in Appalachia, according to a news release from Pitt Health Sciences.
Jane Liebschutz, chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine at Pitt, in partnership with Judith Feinberg of West Virginia University and Sarah Kawasaki of Penn State, will establish the Appalachian Node of the National Institute on Drug Abuse Clinical Trials Network to conduct opioid-related research in the region over the next five years. Emphasis will be placed on reaching rural and other underserved populations.
“Historical and cultural factors have caused Appalachia to experience the negative consequences of the opioid epidemic at a disproportionally high rate, including overdoses, neonatal abstinence syndrome and death,” Liebschutz said in the news release. “Oftentimes, research does not include data from rural populations, meaning that the findings don’t always apply in the same way they would to an urban population. This grant will help to ensure that we are addressing the opioid epidemic in a way that truly helps those who are most impacted.”
The team will use its funding to work with individual clinical practices throughout Appalachia to enroll patients in national studies related to opioid use and treatment.