Can prescribers avoid contributing to opioid use disorder?
A 21 y/o has surgery for a condition expected to improve. He fills a discharge prescription for 5 days of an opioid at a standard dose. At 1-week follow-up with his family doctor for suture removal, he describes ongoing pain. Can prescribers avoid contributing to opioid use disorder? Is a renewal of opioid appropriate, potentially dangerous, or both? Read more …
Can prescribers avoid contributing to opioid use disorder?
Missing Evidence on Addiction Medicine Professional Training Needs
We wanted to find out whether newly trained professionals working in addiction medicine around the world felt they had enough and appropriate training to treat individuals with addictions.
| QUICK FACT: There are international differences in the training quality and type given to professionals in addiction medicine, and their training needs. |
Addiction training provision must meet training needs
Closing the gap between training needs and training provision in addiction medicine
Substance use disorders pose a significant global social and economic burden. Although effective interventions exist, treatment coverage remains limited.
The lack of an adequately trained workforce is one of the prominent reasons.
Recent initiatives improved training nationally, but further efforts are required to build curricula that are internationally applicable. We therefore believe that the training needs of professionals in the area have not yet been explored in sufficient detail.
Addiction training provision must meet training needs
We propose that a peer-led survey to assess those needs, using a standardised structured tool, would help to overcome this deficiency.
The findings from such a survey could be used to develop a core set of competencies which is sufficiently flexible in its implementation to address the specific needs of the wide range of professionals working in addiction medicine worldwide.
Source: Arya, S., Delic, M., Ruiz, B., Klimas, J., Papanti, D., Stepanov, A., . . . Krupchanka, D. (2019). Closing the gap between training needs and training provision in addiction medicine. BJPsych International, 1-3. doi:10.1192/bji.2019.27
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Scoping the needs of early career addiction specialists, Protocol
Boost for Oral Opioid Agonist Therapy
Although opioid agonist treatment is effective in treating opioid use disorders, retention in such treatment is suboptimal in part due to quality of care issues. A new initiative sought to boost treatment of opioid use disorders so that people stay there longer. This article describes how teams did in a structured quality improvement initiative in Vancouver, Canada. (more…)
Scoping the needs of early career addiction specialists, Protocol
What are the training needs of newly trained professionals working in addiction medicine around the world? Do they get enough and appropriate training to treat people who live with addictions? A new study protocol plans to answer these questions. (more…)