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Background on Health Disparities

About NIDA

In 2000, NIDA established a Strategic Plan on Reducing and Ultimately Eliminating Health Disparities. The plan set forth NIDA's relevant goals to eliminate health disparities by (1) improving understanding of the incidence and causes of drug abuse and addiction in all racial/ethnic groups by recognizing diversity, (2) strengthening and expanding the community and research infrastructure for conducting research with racial/ethnic populations, (3) improving prevention and treatment for racial/ethnic groups at highest risk for addiction and medical consequences of drug use and addiction, and (4) disseminating information on drug use and the disease of addiction in racial/ethnic communities identifying best approaches to prevention and treatment.

The Special Populations Office (SPO) coordinates NIDA's health disparities efforts. The SPO works to stimulate and encourage research that will lead to more drug abuse and addiction prevention and treatment approaches for health disparity populations, increase the number of scholars engaged in addiction research from groups underrepresented in science, and prepare researchers to better address health disparities related to drug abuse and addiction.

Featured Publication

Featured Publication

Drugs, Brains, and Behavior - The Science of Addiction

As a result of scientific research, we know that addiction is a disease that affects both brain and behavior.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH...Turning Discovery Into Health

National Institute on Drug Abuse   |   6001 Executive Boulevard, Room 5213   |   Bethesda, MD 20892-9561

Questions for our staff? E-mail information@nida.nih.gov or call 301-443-1124 (240-221-4007 en español).

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