In October 2021, Conquer Addiction's Board of Directors voted to create the Conquer Addiction Research Institute (CARI) with this mission:
Conduct research to improve clinical outcomes for SUD patients
CARI will focus on developing & publishing actionable research with the potential to help dramatically more individuals recover from addiction over the next few years. While there is an impressive amount of research being funded to investigate issues such as how the neurology of the brain is affected by addiction and the impact of genealogical factors on an individual's likelihood to become addicted, little current research addresses the practical questions facing individuals struggling to recover today.
This is not a problem unique to addiction. As former New York Times mental health editor Benedict Carey lamented as he retired earlier this year, researchers in behavioral healthcare have focused more over the last 20 years on esoteric topics than on how to help individuals in distress get better. Mr. Carey's closing plea was for funders to:
"[support] more small teams working to build the psychological equivalent of a life preserver: treatments and supports and innovations that could be implemented in the near future"
This is precisely what CARI's first study is designed to achieve.
MAT Outcomes Research Study
Following an open RFP, CARI has provided Vista Research Group with a $100,000 grant to conduct outcomes research for SUD patients attending high-quality medication-assisted treatment facilities across the country. Preliminary funding of $100,000 has been committed for the following purpose:
Develop during-treatment and post-treatment outcomes research for patients attending outpatient medication-assisted clinics (including methadone, buprenorphine, Suboxone, Sublocade, Vivitrol, naltrexone and/or similar medications) that is directly comparable to outcomes research for patients attending abstinence-based treatment centers.
It is expected that this research will not only help to determine the importance of various factors in helping individuals using medication-assisted treatment to achieve long-term recovery, but will also lay the foundation for researchers to eventually be able to predict which treatment modalities are likely to be more effective for individuals based on their drug use history, demographic profile and other factors.