Clinical Digest: Travel-Related Ailments and Complementary Health Approaches

People planning international travel often ask their health care providers about the use of complementary or integrative health approaches for travel-related illnesses and conditions. Some of these approaches for travel-related health problems are promoted widely in advertising or marketed on the Internet. However, little of this information is supported by research evidence, and some of it is misleading or false. This issue of the Digest focuses on what scientifically credible research says about some of the herbal remedies, dietary supplements, and other complementary health approaches frequently suggested for travel-related ailments and hazards.

Get the New HerbList™ App!

NCCIH’s new HerbList™ app is now available for both iOS and Android devices!

What’s HerbList? It’s an herb database you can put in the palm of your hand. This free, easy-to-use app provides summaries of the research on more than 50 herbs used for health purposes – with special attention to safety concerns, side effects, and herb-drug interactions. Don’t have an Internet connection? Not a problem! HerbList works offline!

Request for Information: The HEALing Communities Study: Developing and Testing an Integrated Approach to Address the Opioid Crisis

Despite the availability of multiple effective evidence-based interventions and practices, most Americans at risk for or suffering from an opioid use disorder (OUD) do not receive appropriate prevention and treatment services. Simultaneously, opioid overdose rates continue to increase.

National Institute on Drug Abuse, in partnership with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, is exploring options for conducting a multi-site national research effort in up to three communities to develop and test approaches for the systematic implementation and sustainability of an integrated set of evidence-based interventions across healthcare, behavioral health, justice systems, state and local governments, and community organizations to prevent and treat opioid misuse and OUD.

Information Requested: This RFI solicits input from the extramural research community and public stakeholders. Responses will be accepted until July 20, 2018, via e-mail to: OpioidRFI@nida.nih.gov.

To K or Not to K

Dr. Lanay Mudd

June 27, 2018

Should early career investigators who are seeking research funding apply for a Career Development Award (K award) or skip straight to a Research Grant (R award)? NCCIH’s training officer, Dr. Lanay Mudd, addresses this issue and explains the advantages of applying for a K award in her latest post on our Research Blog.

NCCIH Grantees: Using Administrative Supplements To Fund Additional Research on Pain or Opioid Use Disorder

Dr. Yisong Wang

June 29, 2018

Administrative supplements are one mechanism that National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) grantees can use to pursue research and bring laser focus to critical public health issues within the scope of a parent award. An administrative supplement is a noncompeting award (evaluated by National Institutes of Health staff, not peer review) that provides additional funding to a currently funded grant to meet increased costs that are within the scope of the approved project but that were unforeseen when the new or competing renewal application was awarded. NCCIH encourages current grantees to consider whether additional funding could be used to address the current crisis related to pain and opioid use disorder (OUD).

One-Day Chronic Pain Symposium in Boston To Feature Researchers and Patients

Wen G. Chen, Ph.D.

July 11, 2018

I want to alert you to an exciting 1-day research symposium on chronic pain organized by the NCCIH Pain Working Group.

Chronic Pain: The Science of Complementary and Integrative Health Approaches, sponsored by the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) in collaboration with the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research, and the NIH Pain Consortium, will take place on Tuesday, September 11, 2018 in advance of the World Congress on Pain. You can register for this symposium even if you’re not attending the Congress.