May 6, 2026
UNC School of Medicine and UNC Health received funding from The Duke Endowment to launch Bridge to Health, a pilot program led by Timothy Daaleman, MD, and UNC Family Medicine. The initiative will expand hospital-based transitional clinics and strengthen partnerships to improve care for patients with complex medical and social needs.
August 20, 2025
Experts at the UNC School of Medicine and UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy are focused on a pain drug candidate that can target an area of the brain that controls the ‘unpleasantness’ associated with pain.
February 12, 2025
Randomized, placebo-controlled trial finds that low-dose semaglutide reduces amount of alcohol consumption, alcohol cravings, and heavy drinking days. Reductions in cigarettes per day were also seen.
July 16, 2024
Leah Ranney, PhD, Sarah Kowitt, PhD, MPH, and team were rewarded a five-year, $2.9 million grant studying cannabis warnings. The award from the NIH National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) will go towards research involving a legal analysis of existing cannabis warning regulations, interviews with cannabis regulators, the development of evidence-based cannabis warnings, and online experiments to implement more effective warnings that inform people about the risks associated with cannabis use.
June 25, 2024
Christian Hendershot, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry and director of the Clinical and Translational Addiction Research Program at the UNC School of Medicine, presented early findings from the first completed randomized controlled trial of semaglutide for reducing alcohol consumption in heavy drinkers.
May 13, 2024
The UNC School of Medicine lab of Zoe McElligott, PhD, and colleagues found that the animal tranquilizer xylazine activates opioid receptors in the brain, suggesting a reason why the treatment naloxone triggers a more severe withdrawal response when given to individuals on fentanyl/xylazine and suffering from respiratory depression.
April 24, 2024
UNC Addiction Medicine Program and CORE NC presented on "Low Threshold MOUD: Partnering with Community to Expand Access" during the Morning Plenary at the 2024 Addiction Medicine Conference and shared new video on the Atlas Mobile Clinic community-campus partnership in Robeson County.
February 28, 2024
Under the direction of assistant professor of radiology Li-Ming Hsu, the research demonstrates how long-term cocaine use affects brain functions, making recovery and stifling cravings more difficult.
December 5, 2023
Christian Hendershot, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry and director of the Clinical and Translational Addiction Research Program at the UNC School of Medicine, co-wrote a commentary on repurposing the antidiabetic medication semaglutide to treat substance and alcohol use disorders.
October 13, 2023
Adam Goldstein, MD, MPH, professor of family medicine and director of tobacco intervention programs at the UNC School of Medicine, was featured in the Triangle Business Journal.
August 23, 2023
Through a new $3.8-million, five-year NIH-funded project, UNC School of Medicine researcher Aysenil Belger, PhD, and Diana Fishbein, PhD, at Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute will examine neurological and psychological factors that lead some adolescents with anxiety symptoms to use controlled substances. The goal is to improve precision-based, targeted interventions for these teens.
August 4, 2023
A new study published by UNC Family Medicine’s Sarah Kowitt, PhD, MPH, and colleagues looked at the impact of different types of warning signs for large and premium cigars sold individually at the point of sale. The team’s newly developed graphic and text warnings were more effective than the FDA’s proposed text-only warnings and could potentially increase the effectiveness of warning signs for large and premium cigars.