About Us
Mission
We are an innovative, diverse team of experts reimagining and transforming health care for pain and addiction.
We advance science to provide students, educators, professionals, leaders and communities with evidence-based insights, therapies and resources.
Together, we empower those of us affected by pain and addiction to thrive.
Goals
In Arizona, opioid overdose deaths reached a high of 1,982 in 2020, a 45% increase from 2019. Drug overdose deaths in the U.S. reached their highest point ever recorded last year, with more than 100,000 deaths over 12 months.
At the same time, chronic pain is the No. 1 cause of disability in the U.S., and according to the American Chronic Pain Association, 1 in 6 people are living with chronic pain.
At the Comprehensive Center for Pain & Addiction, we strive to:
- create an environment that embraces preclinical and clinical research that addresses chronic pain and addiction while educating all health care providers and students across Arizona
- design new legislation that helps prevent future addiction crises while developing innovative technology to predict those at risk of substance misuse and prevent opioid-induced deaths
- build a clinical center that provides state-of-the-art and affordable care to all Arizonans suffering from chronic pain and addiction
- train and prepare future physicians to adequately manage both chronic pain and substance use disorders.
At the Comprehensive Center for Pain & Addiction, our initiatives center on helping those most impacted by pain, substance misuse and mental health, while engaging and educating our community partners, collaborators and policy makers. We use an intersectional approach that allows us to nuance our work and intervention strategies to address the needs of people with chronic pain and substance use disorders. Internal and external surveys, focus groups and other qualitative and quantitative data and assessment guide our work in becoming a truly accessible center.