The Greater Southern California Node
of the National Institute on Drug Abuse
Clinical Trials Network
About the Greater Southern California Node (GSCN)
The overall objective of the GSCN is to advance the mission of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) by participating in and supporting research focused on treatment interventions for substance use disorders (SUDs), including opioid use disorder (OUD the opioid crisis addressed by the “HEAL” initiative (Helping End Addiction Long Term) of the National Institutes of Health. Toward that goal, the GSCN collaborates with other nodes of the NIDA Clinical Trials Network (CTN) to design and conduct research efforts that explore innovative methods to increase utilization of evidence-based treatments for SUDs, with a special emphasis on medication treatment for OUD. An initial focus of the GSCN is to implement research aimed at expansion and improvement of medication treatment for OUD across diverse regions with under-served, high-need populations in rural settings where SUD services are lacking.
To help develop effective and sustainable interventions for OUD and other SUDs that can be delivered in a range of healthcare settings, the GSCN will collaboratively develop research leading to improved treatment and better outcomes of treatments for SUDs. Advancing the mission of NIDA and the CTN, GSCN investigators will identify priority research areas and collaborate with other CTN investigators and community stakeholders to generate new research concepts. The GSCN will build and support a coordinated, comprehensive, multi-disciplinary research infrastructure within the GSCN and across the other nodes of the CTN. Located at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), the GSCN includes senior investigators from UCLA, RAND, and research institutions throughout Southern California and across the nation.
The leadership of the GSCN and affiliated investigators have a long history of implementing large-scale clinical research and effectively disseminating results of that work to academic audiences and to community-based clinicians treating patients with SUDs in specialty clinics and primary care practices. To increase research capacity and enhance the impacts of CTN research in community-based practice, the GSCN will provide innovative training to SUD researchers and to individuals involved in addressing SUDs, from policymakers to clinicians. Training initiatives and other dissemination efforts across diverse healthcare settings and at scientific meetings will be designed to increase uptake and impact of research-based interventions.
The GSCN is supported by Cooperative Agreement UG1DA049435 awarded by NIDA to UCLA.