Educational Activities Archives

Co-occurring psychiatric conditions are common in patients with substance use disorders, yet the “abstinence first” approach still shapes too much clinical practice, delaying care that patients need now. This course equips general health care providers – primary care physicians, nurses, PAs, and pharmacists – to recognize and manage the psychiatric conditions most often seen alongside substance use disorders, particularly mood disorders, anxiety and stress disorders (including PTSD), and ADHD.

The prevalence of opioid use disorder (OUD) among older adults in the United States is rising, but remains underdiagnosed, underreported, and inadequately managed. Older adults with OUD often have medical comorbidities and are at higher risk of complications. This webinar provides guidelines for evaluating older adults with OUD, the management of opioid withdrawal syndrome and maintenance treatment of OUD, including MOUD and psychosocial interventions.

This session focuses on addressing opioid use disorder (OUD) in acute care settings, where treatment decisions often fall to them and carry lasting consequences for patients. This session walks through identifying OUD, assessing withdrawal, and choosing the right medication treatment when fentanyl exposure, pain, trauma, and psychiatric comorbidity complicate the picture. Participants will work through standard and alternative buprenorphine induction strategies, methadone initiation, and how to manage precipitated withdrawal when things do not go as planned. We will close with disposition planning, naloxone provision, discharge prescribing, and how to build a warm handoff that actually holds.

This session explores the complex relationship between nicotine and opioid use, including shared biological pathways and how co-use can intensify pain, cravings, and withdrawal. Patients may rely on nicotine to manage stress or withdrawal symptoms, creating a reinforcing cycle that complicates recovery. Integrating treatment for both conditions is increasingly recognized as essential to improving long-term outcomes.

This webinar provides an exploration of recovery capital and its critical role in shaping outcomes for individuals with substance use disorders, particularly opioid use disorder (OUD). Grounded in contemporary and historic definitions of recovery, participants will examine recovery as a dynamic, multidimensional process that extends beyond symptom reduction to include improvements in health, purpose, community connection, and overall quality of life.

Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) is an evidence-based approach to managing patients with or at risk for SUD. This is a standardized core curriculum in SUD and SBIRT, designed for U.S. dental schools. Dental students who take and pass the curriculum modules would have achieved an understanding of the knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes needed to carry out SBIRT in a dental setting.