# 2 - Opioid Treatment for Pain: Causes and Consequences

> **NIH NIH P01** · NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH · 2020 · $165,340

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Project 2 – Opioid Treatment for Pain: Causes and Consequences
Pain is arguably the most prevalent and most expensive public health condition in the U.S., and assessment
and treatment of pain have emerged as markers of high-quality health care. Yet one common treatment—
opioid pain medication—itself carries serious health risks, including increased pain sensitivity, dependence,
and addiction. Opioid use, misuse, and abuse have skyrocketed in the the past two decades, creating a major
public health crisis. This crisis has revealed the lack of research evidence to guide health care providers on the
appropriate management of chronic pain and the safe prescribing of opioid analgesics. Pain is vastly under-
studied compared to other priority conditions such as heart disease, cancer, and dementia, and even less is
known about effective pain management in middle-aged and older adults.
Using descriptive and quasi-experimental methods, our goal is to understand why opioid use has risen and
how this increased use has affected the health and functional outcomes of middle-aged and older Americans.
We will use longitudinal survey data and very large administrative medical claims databases that contain
detailed information about opioid treatment among commercially insured, publicly insured, and uninsured
patients, and which also include information about physicians and their prescribing behavior. Our first Aim is to
understand the initiation and use of opioid treatment for pain by different types of patients over time and across
geographic regions, with a special focus on the pathways by which individuals progress from short-term opioid
use to long-term opioid use. Our second Aim is to identify factors influencing physician prescribing of opioid
pain medications, and to measure the concentration of opioid prescribing among physicians by geographic
area. Our third Aim is to evaluate how state and federal policies, along with physician prescribing behavior,
have affected opioid use, health, and functional outcomes. This project will contribute to the program project's
overall goal of understanding trends in population health, with emphasis on how health care providers and
public policies shape those trends to improve the health of an aging population.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9990664
- **Project number:** 5P01AG005842-32
- **Recipient organization:** NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH
- **Principal Investigator:** NICOLE A MAESTAS
- **Activity code:** P01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $165,340
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** — → —

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9990664

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9990664, 2 - Opioid Treatment for Pain: Causes and Consequences (5P01AG005842-32). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9990664. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*