How opioids change feelings of connection with close loved ones
Official title: Understanding how opioids affect the experiential and neural signatures of feelings of social connection with close others
Funded at San Diego State University · NIH-11324240 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This project looks at whether opioid medicines or medicines that block them change how adults feel connected to close friends and family.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | San Diego State University NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (San Diego, United States) |
| Project start | July 15, 2021 |
| Project end | April 30, 2027 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| Award (this year) | $629,968 |
| NIH project number | 5R01DA052883-05 |
| Project ID | NIH-11324240 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Ideal participants are adults (21 and older) who can take part in medication and brain-imaging sessions and are comfortable reporting on relationships with close friends or family.
✕Less likely to help
People under 21 or those unwilling or unable to take medication or undergo brain imaging are unlikely to gain direct benefit from participating.
What this research studies
You would take part in lab visits where researchers give a drug that acts on the opioid system or a placebo, ask about your feelings of closeness with real loved ones, and measure brain responses using imaging. The team will compare how people feel and how their brains respond after the drug versus placebo. Some work builds on animal studies, but this project includes healthy adult volunteers and human-focused experiments. The goal is to link changes in reported social connection to specific brain activity patterns.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this work could help explain why opioid-blocking medications sometimes reduce feelings of closeness and guide ways to support social relationships during addiction treatment.
How similar studies have gone: Prior human studies have shown that opioid blockers like naltrexone can reduce feelings of social connection, but linking those effects to specific brain signatures is more recent.
Where this research is happening
-
San Diego State University
San Diego, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Inagaki, Tristen K. — San Diego State University
- Study coordinator: Inagaki, Tristen K.
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.