Virginia Tech® home

2024 | Flash Funding | Using a Whole Health Approach to Address Comorbid Alcohol Use Disorder and Chronic Pain

FLASH FUNDED PROJECT | Whole Health Consortium

Using a Whole Health Approach to Address Comorbid Alcohol Use Disorder and Chronic Pain

TEAM:

This project aims to address the co-occurrence of Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) and chronic pain (CP), conditions that together affect a significant portion of the population and result in substantial economic costs to the US government. AUD and CP are deeply intertwined, with shared etiologic factors and reciprocal influences that exacerbate both conditions, hinder treatment effectiveness, and increase healthcare costs. Despite the high prevalence of these co-occurring conditions, integrated prevention and treatment strategies are lacking. Our proposal seeks to fill this gap by involving community members and clinicians in developing effective, scalable, and sustainable prevention and treatment strategies for combined AUD and CP.

The project will generate a list of funding mechanisms to support the development of concurrent prevention and treatment strategies for AUD and CP. It will also initiate a Community Engagement Studio, recruiting patients with AUD and CP to gather their preferences and opinions on effective treatment and prevention strategies. Additionally, the project will develop a workshop on the intersection of alcohol use and chronic pain, providing evidence-based information and community resources. By addressing critical knowledge gaps and involving diverse perspectives from the outset, this project aims to create integrated care models that can be sustainably implemented, ultimately improving treatment outcomes and reducing healthcare costs for individuals with co-occurring AUD and CP.