The recent Opioids in Pain and Addiction Symposium, held at the University of Arizona, gathered top minds in neuroscience, addiction treatment and pain management. Hosted at the Health Sciences Innovation Building, the event brought together researchers, clinicians and health care leaders to discuss scientific breakthroughs for opioid use disorder and chronic pain.
“The bottom line is addiction causes pain, and pain causes addiction,” said George Koob, Ph.D., director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism at the National Institutes of Health.
Koob spoke about recent research exploring the connection between pain and addiction, describing how physical pain and emotional distress can feed off each other to create a cycle that complicates recovery. When someone becomes more sensitive to pain or negative emotions, each can heighten the other, posing a challenging dynamic for people struggling with addiction.
Don Kyle, Ph.D., CEO of the National Center for Wellness and Recovery (NCWR) at Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences, highlighted the growing partnership between Oklahoma State University and the University of Arizona.
“Collaborations open new doors for innovative research projects, pushing us closer to breakthrough treatments for substance use disorder and chronic pain,” he said.
These collaborations can then translate to better patient care. Keith Meldrum, a personal pain advocate and retired civil engineer, emphasized the importance of collaboration between patients and their medical teams. Meldrum said it’s crucial that doctors listen to their patients and understand that each journey is unique.
Later in the day, Craig Werner, Ph.D., senior director of neuroscience at NCWR, shared a presentation on “Re-imagining drug discovery for substance use disorder. He focused on the potential of rethinking traditional drug development approaches to create effective treatments for substance use disorder.
At the end of the day, attendees left the symposium with a deeper understanding of the latest research in pain and addiction. The event underscored the need for collaborative efforts and interdisciplinary research to address the growing challenges posed by opioid use disorder and substance use disorder.