National Institute on Drug Abuse Clinical Trials Network

A large and complex drug treatment system has grown up in the United States, a system that provides residential and outpatient services to more than 1 million drug abuse patients annually at more than 13,000 treatment clinics. At the same time, an active drug abuse research initiative has also been thriving in this country. The research enterprise is based at academic research institutions and derives funding primarily from two federal grant funding agencies: the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institute on [Page 611]Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. In the past, researchers and treatment providers have generally operated independently, pursuing slightly different goals and priorities, although their common goal is to ensure that high-quality treatment of substance abuse is available in this country.

In 1998, ...