Opioid Use Disorder: A Multifaceted Approach

Parker Carte* and Scott Galster, Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia 26506

Field (Broad Category): Neuroscience (Oral-Science & Technology) 

Student’s Major: Multi-Disciplinary Studies 

Opioid addiction has become a public health emergency in the United States with more than 15 million people suffering from an opioid use disorder (OUD); furthermore, 130 people are dying across the country every day from opioid overdoses (Han et al. 2017; Scholl et al. 2019). Meanwhile, West Virginia leads the country in opioid overdose mortality per capita with 49.6 per 100,000 (National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2019). Opioids are a class of drugs that include the illegal drug heroin as well as very strong prescription pain medications, including morphine, methadone, fentanyl, and oxycodone. In 2019, WVU Medicine’s Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute (RNI) launched the nation’s first clinical trial using Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) to treat patients suffering from treatment-resistant OUD. RNI researchers are currently exploring the use of focused ultrasound to modulate the nucleus accumbens to reduce cravings in opioid addiction. In addition, RNI is collecting physiological, cognitive, behavioral, and subjective data from patients in recovery. RNI uses the data to develop models of “success and abstinence” and models of “failure and relapse.” These noninvasive, targeted OUD treatments offer critically needed, new options for those suffering with difficult to treat addictions. 

Funding: Unknown 

Program/mechanism supporting research/creative efforts: WVU's Research Apprenticeship Program (RAP) & accompanying HONR 297-level course