NIDA and NIAAA quietly drop “preaddiction” RFI

Abstract

A “Request for Information” (RFI) document issued last year (see NIDA and NIAAA call for information on use of ‘preaddiction’, ADAW April 15, 2023;https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adaw.33745) from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) on the use of the term “preaddiction” has been dropped. There was no official announcement of this, unless you were at the College on Problems of Drug Dependence annual meeting in June 2023, when the decision was presented by NIDA and NIAAA. “Responses to the RFI revealed broad consensus around the need to improve early intervention before substance use progresses to addiction,” NIDA and NIAAA press offices told ADAW last week. “However, the majority of respondents shared concerns that establishing a new diagnostic term would not be constructive. Based on this feedback, NIDA and NIAAA are not encouraging implementation of new diagnostic terms at this time. Instead, other research strategies to help identify people at high risk, improve addiction prevention and early intervention, and address the many barriers that impede the delivery of effective prevention interventions and engagement in care will be pursued. As one example, NIDA, NIAAA, and others are supporting a consensus study by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, Medicine (NASEM) to provide a roadmap of steps needed to develop and finance a sustainable infrastructure at the national and/or state level for implementing evidence‐based interventions for preventing psychiatric disorders like addiction.” Work on that NASEM consensus study just began last week (see https://www.nationalacademies.org/our‐work/blueprint‐for‐a‐national‐prevention‐infrastructure‐for‐behavioral‐health‐disorders).