Study Will Assess Therapy to Reduce Opioid Withdrawal, Ongoing Cravings

Spark Biomedical has received a $2.49 million grant from the National Institutes of Health HEAL (Helping to End Addiction Long-term) Initiative to conduct a clinical trial in partnership with Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation and Gaudenzia Inc. to examine how its Sparrow Therapy System, a transcutaneous auricular neurostimulation (tAN) therapy, can improve opioid addiction treatment retention by reducing post-acute opioid withdrawal symptoms and ongoing cravings.

The HEAL grant will fund a prospective, randomized, controlled, multi-center, 2-phase clinical trial that is slated to begin in January. In its research, Spark aims to analyze rates of treatment retention and withdrawal symptom reduction during acute detox, as well as rates of relapse, reduction in opioid cravings, and post-acute withdrawal symptom reductions.

Navid Khodaparast, PhD, Spark chief science officer and principal investigator on the study, said in a news release that the research will “collectively expand our understanding of how neurostimulation and pharmacologic treatments can improve addiction outcomes.

Alta DeRoo, MD, the recently appointed chief medical officer for Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, added that with opioid overdose rates surging, there is a need for more treatment interventions that expand patient choices, meet individual needs, and improve outcomes.

“We’ll be observing the effects of this wearable treatment on a spectrum of patients who initiate their care at our two largest residential treatment sites and are grateful to help advance the research on treatment options,” Dr DeRoo said in a statement.