STAT interviewed National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Director Nora Volkow on the changes the administration is making to health agencies including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), NIDA’s parent agency.

The details:

• NIH changes: When asked how recent policy changes at NIH had affected her day-to-day work, Volkow said, “They have increased my blood pressure and heart rate,” before declining to answer specific questions about the changes, instead referring them to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). But she delivered an impassioned defense of NIH and NIDA. She said that it is sometimes good to “shake the system” to root out inefficiencies, but that it is only productive if the end goal is to strengthen the organization.
• Addiction treatment: Regarding HHS Secretary Kennedy’s personal experience with 12-step recovery, Volkow said, “It’s wonderful that it worked for him, but I do know a lot of people where 12 steps did not work for them.” She stressed that there is no one solution for every person.
• Overdose death decline: She said overdose deaths have been decreasing for reasons including improvements in access to naloxone and medications for opioid use disorder, public education, efforts to prevent fentanyl from crossing the border, the COVID pandemic’s end, and the reality that many of the most vulnerable people who used drugs have already died.
• Recovery: She highlighted the importance of research on recovery in order to have support services reimbursed by insurance.