NIDA’s Clinical Trials Network: Science, practice & reality.

This presentation provides an overview of the origins of the National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network, established by NIDA in part to address the issues raised by an IOM report decrying the “gap” between research and treatment. After the CTN was established, NIDA and SAMHSA came together to launch the Blending Initiative, which featured regular Blending Conferences, a greater focus on interactions with single state agency directors to help facilitate broader adoption of research-supported treatment, and the development of Blending Teams and Blending Products to operationalize implementation of research findings in the field. A description of each of the currently available Blending Products is provided, as well as an introduction to two new Blending Products coming soon. Research on the CTN’s impact in the adoption of new evidence-based practices is also presented, along with a showcase of resources those interested in implementation might find useful on the NIDA CTN web site, the online CTN Dissemination Library, and the CTN Datashare page.