Clinical Services and Resources for the National Institute on Drug Abuse, Intramural Research Program (NIDA, IRP)

The mission of the NIDA IRP is to conduct state-of-the-art research on basic mechanisms that underlie drug use and addiction and to develop new methods for treatment. Research is supported at the molecular, cellular, and clinical levels and is conceptually integrated, highly innovative, and focused on major problems in the field of addiction.

NIDA IRP attempts to elucidate the nature of substance use disorders; to determine the potential effectiveness of new therapies for addiction, both pharmacological and psychosocial; and to decipher the long-term consequences of drugs on the development, maturation, function, and structure of the human brain and other organ systems.

Using human volunteers, the IRP clinical program conducts multidisciplinary research involving residential and nonresidential clinical addiction studies interrelating with pre-clinical laboratory investigations. In general, these studies evaluate the nature of drug use and addiction by assessing the abuse potential of drugs, investigating their underlying mechanisms, and assessing treatment modalities for substance use disorders. Please see SSN attached.