Sickle Cell Disease Pain Management: New Funding Opportunities for Clinical Research are Coming Soon

October 7, 2021

Della White, Ph.D.

The Helping to End Addiction Long-term^SM Initiative, or NIH HEAL Initiative^SM, has released notices of two upcoming funding opportunity announcements (FOAs) to support large-scale clinical trials on sickle cell disease (SCD) pain management. The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) will lead this program with partnership of nine NIH Institutes, Centers and Offices. The funding opportunities are expected to support up to three large-scale trials.

Mind and Body Practices for Fibromyalgia

September 2021 NCCIH Clinical Digest

In general, research on complementary health approaches for fibromyalgia must be regarded as preliminary. However, recent systematic reviews and randomized clinical trials provide encouraging evidence that practices such as tai chi, massage therapy, acupuncture, and balneotherapy may help relieve some fibromyalgia symptoms.

Diets Higher in Omega-3 Fatty Acids Reduce Headache Frequency and Severity in People With Frequent Migraines

Sixteen weeks of treatment with diets higher in omega-3 fatty acids from fatty fish reduced the frequency and severity of headaches in people with frequent migraines, according to a study funded by the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, part of the National Institutes of Health, and conducted at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The study, which was partially supported by the National Institute on Aging and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, was published in the BMJ. 

Reading Between the Tweets: Social Technologies for Predicting and Changing Health Behavior

November 2, 2021 from 1 p.m.-2 p.m. ET; Virtual

Sean D. Young, Ph.D., M.S.

Social technologies and their associated data are increasingly being used as tools in public health research and practice. Examples include social media, mobile apps, internet searches, and wearable sensors. More than half the world (4.5 billion people) uses social media sites to create, share, and discuss content—often in the form of personal thoughts, behaviors, and clinical diagnoses. Dr. Young will discuss how social technologies and data (e.g., artificial intelligence and data science modeling) are being used to impact public health, and how researchers and health departments/agencies might apply them in public health surveillance/intervention efforts. He will also present his team’s research on how these tools can be employed to predict and change health behaviors, and on implementation-related issues such as policy and ethical questions. The studies to be discussed involve populations affected by HIV, mental health and substance use disorders, car crashes, or COVID-19.