Recovery Research Institute

07/21/2025

What are digital recovery support services?

Learn more here: https://youtu.be/EGL2XQdjQDE

07/21/2025

Last week, a congressional briefing brought together leading experts to share the latest science on addressing the national crisis of substance use disorder, treatment, and recovery.
Hosted on Capitol Hill, the event featured powerful insights from:

Dr. John Kelly
Dr. Nora Volkow
Dr. Aaron Hogue
Dr. Noel Vest

Together, they highlighted evidence-based approaches to addiction recovery and emphasized the critical need for science-informed policy.

07/16/2025

Recovery coaching costs more up front—but saves money over time.

A 2019 model found that while recovery coaching cost $3 billion, it led to 570,000 more healthy life years and 320,000 more people in recovery within three years. Recovery coaching becomes even more cost-effective when it performs at the higher end of its potential —saving thousands more in future treatment costs.

From a societal view, it saved nearly $6 billion in 2019 alone.

More in the Recovery Bulletin (link in bio).

07/14/2025

Varenicline, also known by the brand name Chantix, helps young people quit va**ng.

When combined with 12 weeks of behavioral support, young people assigned to receive varenicline were much more likely to stop va**ng than those assigned to placebo or just behavioral support. Even weeks after treatment ended, nearly one in three remained v**e-free.

It also reduced cravings and withdrawal symptoms, with no serious side effects reported.

More in the Recovery Bulletin (link in bio).
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07/10/2025

Binge drinking trends are shifting.

While women have consistently reported less harmful and hazardous alcohol use than men, recent data from 2017-2023 shows notable reversals among young adults: Young women ages 18–25 reported more binge drinking than young men (32% vs. 30%).

More in the Recovery Bulletin (link in bio).

07/09/2025

For people taking opioid use disorder medication, stimulant use increases overdose risk, but only for those taking methadone.

In people taking buprenorphine/naloxone, stimulant prescriptions were linked to a 53% lower overdose risk. But for those on methadone or slow-release oral morphine, stimulants were linked to a 51% higher risk.

While fatal overdoses were uncommon (37 out of 1,746 total), the findings highlight the need for careful medication management for people with opioid use disorder.

More in the Recovery Bulletin (link in bio).

07/07/2025

New research reveals a strong link between heavy drinking and sports gambling. Younger males and those with more education—like college graduates—are more likely to engage in both. Changes in drinking and sports betting are closely connected: when one goes up or down, the other usually follows. Understanding this connection may help tailor prevention and intervention efforts.

Learn more here: https://www.recoveryanswers.org/research-post/sports-gambling-and-heavy-drinking-strongly-linked/

07/02/2025

Research shows that when teens use cannabis to help with sleep it worsens later sleep quality. At the same time, poor sleep makes teens more likely to use cannabis for sleep. This means poor sleep and cannabis use for sleep can make each other worse in a reciprocal fashion.

Read more: https://www.recoveryanswers.org/research-post/teen-use-alcohol-and-cannabis-sleep-helpful-harmful/

06/30/2025

In young adults with cannabis use disorder, a 4-week text messaging program using motivational interviewing to promote reflections on peer cannabis use influences didn’t lead to greater reductions than the no intervention control group. More research is needed to understand why.

Learn more: https://www.recoveryanswers.org/research-post/can-text-messaging-intervention-help-young-adults-reduce-cannabis-use/

06/27/2025

In those with severe alcohol use disorder, positive and negative urgency – the tendency to act impulsively when experiencing either positive or negative emotions – were both related to more alcohol use for women, but only positive urgency was related to more alcohol use for men. General personality traits, however, like neuroticism, were not related to alcohol use. Because these data were collected at only one time point, more research is needed to understand the dynamic relationship between personality traits and alcohol use over time.

Find out more here: https://www.recoveryanswers.org/research-post/leaping-before-you-look-impulsivity-traits-associated-alcohol-use-people-lifetime-aa-other-mutual-help-group-attendance/

06/25/2025

A brief 3-session family-based intervention for patients receiving opioid use disorder medication didn’t improve overall family functioning compared to treatment as usual —though some of the findings were encouraging. Family intervention participants had more engagement and slightly reduced opioid use at 4 weeks. Results suggest more intensive or sustained support may be needed to enhance outcomes.

Learn more through this link: https://www.recoveryanswers.org/research-post/brief-family-intervention-patients-receiving-opioid-use-disorder-medications/

06/25/2025

New from PhenX Toolkit: 30 new protocols now available in the Substance Use, Use Disorders, and Recovery Collections — including a new Substance Use Recovery Specialty Collection.

These tools support research on medical cannabis, polysubstance use, and substance use recovery. This work was funded by The National Institute on Drug Abuse - NIDA

View the protocols: https://www.phenxtoolkit.org/collections/view/2
View the Specialty collection: https://www.phenxtoolkit.org/sub-collections/view/43

The PhenX Toolkit is a catalog of high-priority measures for consideration and inclusion in genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and other large-scale genomic research efforts.