Educational Activities Archives

In this module participants review how to identify the main principles of pain treatment in opioid use disorder and to describe how these principles are applied to the treatment of acute pain as well as chronic non-terminal, non-cancer pain in OUD. Specifically, participants will learn to manage opioid withdrawal and acute pain in patients with OUD during hospitalization with and without receiving concomitant MOUD. Participants will examine strategies in formulating a multimodal pain plan for chronic pain in patients with OUD.

This activity focuses on buprenorphine for the treatment of chronic pain by reviewing different formulations and the evidence-base supporting its use for chronic pain with and without Opioid Use Disorder. Participants learn how to apply the evidence of buprenorphine’s effectiveness to different patient scenarios.

This activity focuses on foundational elements of equitable, patient-centered care for people with chronic pain, with a specific focus on shared-decision making, functional goal setting and effective communication strategies. Participants learn how to empower people with chronic pain to take an active role in their care through patient-centered care approaches.

This activity focuses on the foundational components of Motivational Interviewing and how this approach fits into a client centered approach to care. Participants learn how to apply motivational interviewing skills within a pain management framework.

This activity reviews the body’s normal response to stress and also introduces two brief behavioral exercises to aid in stress reduction and present-focused awareness. Patient explanations for both exercises are provided, as are brief experiential exercises. Sample scripts for clinician use are also included. Finally, a synopsis of the evidence for these exercises is reviewed. In short, the two techniques have evidence for moderate benefit, sometimes short-term only, and no evidence for increased risk of harm. They benefit from being brief, easy to teach, portable, and skills-based (thus skills practice likely increases potential for benefit).

This module focuses on how to approach opioid tapering in the care of patients prescribed long-term opioid therapy for chronic pain who have not been diagnosed with opioid use disorder. It describes patient perspectives on pain and opioid management, and how these may diverge from prescribers’ perspectives. It describes challenges in opioid prescribing, including opioid dependence and withdrawal, and identifies practical approaches to reducing opioids while maintaining a positive patient-clinician relationship. Participants also learn about the role of shared decision-making in opioid tapering.