• Krebs EE, Becker WC, Nelson DB, DeRonne BM, Jensen AC, Kats AM, Morasco BJ, Frank JW, Makris UE, Allen KD, Naylor JC, Mixon AS, Bohnert A, Reznik TE, Painter JT, Hudson TJ, Hagedorn HJ, Manuel JK, Borsari B, Purcell N, Hammett P, Amundson EC, Kerns RD, Barbosa MR, Garvey C, Jones EJ, Noh MY, Okere JB, Bhushan S, Pinsonnault J, Williams BE, Herbst E, Lagisetty P, Librodo S, Mapara PS, Son E, Tat C, Marraffa RA, Seys RL, Baxley C, Seal KH, VOICE Study Group. Care Models to Improve Pain and Reduce Opioids Among Patients Prescribed Long-Term Opioid Therapy: The VOICE Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA internal medicine. 2024 Dec 9.
• Vakkalanka JP, Lund BC, Arndt S, Carter KD, Carnahan R. The Association Between Telehealth Use During Buprenorphine Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder and Clinical Outcomes: A Retrospective Cohort Study. Telemedicine journal and e-health : the official journal of the American Telemedicine Association. 2024 Nov 25.
• Timko C, Lor MC, Kertesz S, Kroenke K, Macia K, Nevedal A, Hoggatt KJ. Management of patients at risk of harms from both continuing and discontinuing their long-term opioid therapy: A qualitative study to inform the gap in clinical practice guidelines. Pain practice : the official journal of World Institute of Pain. 2025 Jan 1; 25(1):e13440.
• Blalock DV, Greene L, Kane RM, Smith VA, Jacobs J, Rao M, Cohen AJ, Zulman DM, Maciejewski ML. Demographic, Social, Behavioral, and Clinical Characteristics Associated with Long-Term Opioid Therapy and Any Opioid Prescription in High-Risk VA Patients. Journal of general internal medicine. 2024 Oct 22.
• Staton MD, Bell JS, McGuire AB, Taylor LD, Watson DP. What happens after the funding ends?: A qualitative sustainability investigation of emergency department-based peer support programs implemented as part of Indiana's opioid state targeted response initiative. Journal of substance use and addiction treatment. 2024 Oct 20; 168:209540.

» View more Citations

• Absence of Brief Intervention Following Positive Alcohol Screen Associated with Increased Opioid-Related Risks within a Year
  This study used electronic health record data to examine the association between primary care-delivered alcohol-related brief intervention (BI) and new opioid prescriptions, new opioid use disorder (OUD) diagnosis, or new opioid-related hospitalization in Veterans one year after a positive screen for alcohol use. Findings showed that 13% of Veterans in the sample screened positive for unhealthy al...
  
  Date: May 1, 2024
• Giving Veterans an Active Voice in Creating a Veteran-Centered Chronic Pain Research Agenda
  Veterans Action League (VAL) 2.0 was a two-year community engagement project (2019–2021) that sought to develop a national Veteran-centered chronic pain research agenda that includes Veteran-generated recommendations for chronic pain management and chronic pain research priorities. Findings showed that Veterans’ most frequently cited need for chronic pain management and treatment was better access...
  
  Date: March 23, 2023
• VA Treatment of Opioid Use Disorder was Maintained During the COVID Pandemic Through Rapid Shift to Telehealth
  At the beginning of the COVID pandemic, key federal policy changes were implemented to decrease barriers to telehealth-delivery of buprenorphine, a life-saving medication treatment for patients with opioid use disorder (OUD). This study examined the impact of these COVID-19 policies on buprenorphine treatment across different modalities (telephone, video, and in-person visits). Findings showed tha...
  
  Date: July 28, 2022
• Antipsychotic Prescribing Decreased in VA Nursing Homes, but Prescribing Alternative Drugs, such as Opioids, Increased
  This study sought to evaluate national trends in prescribing antipsychotic and other central nervous system (CNS)-active medications for Veterans with dementia residing in VA nursing homes, as well as how use has changed over time. Findings showed that antipsychotic use steadily decreased between FY2009 and FY2018 (from 34% to 28%), with similar declines in anxiolytic prescribing (from 34% to 27%)...
  
  Date: May 26, 2022
• Predictive Tool Associated with 22% Lower Odds of All-Cause Mortality among High-Risk Veterans Taking Opioids
  In 2018, VA mandated a case review intervention that targeted patients who had been prescribed opioid analgesics and who were at high risk of adverse outcomes. The Stratification Tool for Opioid Risk Mitigation (STORM), a provider-facing dashboard that uses predictive analytics to stratify patients prescribed opioids based on their risk for overdose/suicide, was developed to identify these patient...
  
  Date: May 2, 2022

» View more Publication Briefs

» View more Studies

Engagement Panels Bring Veterans' Perspectives to Pain/Opioid AMP Research Priorities (03-11-2024)

Pain/Opioid CORE Veteran Engagement Panel Brings Veterans' Perspective to HSR&D Research (03-02-2022)

VOICE Study Partners with Veteran Engagement Panel to Improve Pain Care, Reduce Harms of Opioid Therapy (05-03-2021)

Evidence Brief: Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) for Chronic Pain, PTSD, TBI, Opioid Addiction, and Sexual Trauma (02-04-2021)

Evidence Brief - Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) for Chronic Pain, PTSD, TBI, Opioid Addiction, and Sexual Trauma (12-16-2020)

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Other Resources

• Learn more about VA HSR’s State of the Art conferences on opioid safety and non-pharmacological approaches to chronic musculoskeletal pain management.
• Learn more about the Quality Enhancement Research Initiative’s IMPROVE project, which focuses on integrating pain support in primary care in order to decrease the number of Veterans using opioid therapy for pain management.
• Visit the VA Office of Research & Development’s Substance Use Disorders (SUD) topic page for information about milestones in SUD research across all VA research services.