NIDA's mission is to lead the Nation in bringing the power of science to bear on drug abuse and addiction.
This charge has two critical components. The first is the strategic support and conduct of research across a broad range of disciplines. The second is ensuring the rapid and effective dissemination and use of the results of that research to significantly improve prevention and treatment and to inform policy as it relates to drug abuse and addiction.
Division of Therapeutics and Medical Consequences (DTMC)
The Division of Therapeutics and Medical Consequences (DTMC) plans and directs studies necessary to identify, evaluate, and develop medications to treat substance use disorders (SUDs). The Division develops and administers a program of basic and clinical research to develop innovative pharmacological (both chemical and biological) approaches to treat SUDs . This program is implemented through collaborations with academia, industry (pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies), and other government institutions (e.g., the Veterans Administration and the FDA). The Division also coordinates and provides leadership in the area of medical conditions associated with SUDs, including but not limited to HIV/AIDS.
The Medications Development Program of DTMC is unique, created by congressional mandate in 1990 to establish a program to develop medications for the treatment of heroin and cocaine dependence. This charge has been expanded to now include developing medications to treat nicotine, cannabis, methamphetamine, and prescription opioid dependence. DTMC funds research through grants, cooperative agreements, and contracts. The Division continues to establish scientific collaborations with investigators from academic centers, the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors, and government agencies at both the national and international levels.
Center for Clinical Trials Network (CCTN)
The Center for Clinical Trials Network (CCTN) manages NIDA's National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network (CTN), a multi-site research project of behavioral, pharmacological, and integrated treatment interventions to determine effectiveness across a broad range of community-based treatment settings and diversified patient populations. The CCTN is responsible for the scientific, administrative, budgetary, and operational management of the CTN. Together the CTN and the CCTN provide a foundation for conducting research with the primary goal of bridging the gap between the science of drug treatment and its practice through the study of scientifically based interventions in real world settings.
The CTN provides an enterprise in which the National Institute on Drug Abuse, treatment researchers, and community-based service providers cooperatively develop, validate, refine, and deliver new treatment options to patients in community-level clinical practice. This unique partnership between community treatment providers and academic research leaders aims to achieve the following objectives:
- Conducting studies of behavioral, pharmacological, and integrated behavioral and pharmacological treatment interventions of therapeutic effect in rigorous, multi-site clinical trials to determine effectiveness across a broad range of community-based treatment settings and diversified patient populations; and.
- Ensuring the transfer of research results to physicians, clinicians, providers, and patients.