Archive for the ‘News & Updates’ Category
TIP 54: Managing Chronic Pain in Adults With or in Recovery From Substance Use Disorders |
| February 3rd, 2012 |
This new TIP from SAMHSA equips clinicians with practical guidance and tools for treating chronic pain in adults with a history of substance abuse. It also discusses chronic pain management, including treatment with opioids, and offers information about substance abuse assessments and referrals. To access this resource from SAMHSA, click here.
|
| Posted in News & Updates |
Addiction Medicine 2012 Conference – Register Today! |
| February 3rd, 2012 |
Join us on March 30 & 31 in Asheville, NC for our annual Addiction Medicine conference! The 2 full-day event will open with plenary presentations on non-chemical behavioral addictions like compulsive gambling and current thinking on sex and food addictions and end with an examination of benzodiazepine misuse and abuse, a major prescription medication problem. In addition to the large-group plenaries, the core of the conference will be a variety of skill-based two-hour seminars, allowing participants to select clinical learning opportunities of their own particular interest. Some of these workshops can be sequenced to allow for more in-depth learning if desired. This includes a 6-hour sequence on Basic and Advanced Addiction Medicine, and two four-hour workshops on Buprenorphine Prescribing and Pain Management Skills. Other seminars will focus on regulatory and legal issues, toxicology, pregnancy and traumatic brain injury. Speakers and workshop leaders are drawn from outstanding regional as well as national experts, facilitating valuable networking and post-conference contact. Please join us in beautiful, springtime Asheville for another outstanding annual conference! To register, click here. |
| Posted in News & Updates |
DOD Drug Testing Program To Screen For More Prescription Drugs |
| February 3rd, 2012 |
National Guard (2/2/12): The Defense Department’s drug-testing program is expanding to add screening for two additional prescription medications to the range of legal and illegal drugs it currently detects. Joe Angello, the department’s director of operational readiness and safety, told Pentagon Channel and American Forces Press Service reporters the two drugs added to the screening program, hydrocodone and benzodiazepines, are nationally among the most abused prescription drugs now on the market. The program already tests for codeine and morphine, he noted. To read more, click here. |
| Posted in News & Updates |
Alcohol, Other Drugs, and Health: Current Evidence |
| February 1st, 2012 |
Alcohol, Other Drugs, and Health: Current Evidence (1/31/12): The Alcohol, Other Drugs, and Health: Current Evidence November-December 2011 Edition has been published and includes several excellent articles such as, Buprenorphine-Naloxone Works for Prescription Opioid Dependence As Long As It Is Maintained, Patients Who Receive Opioids for Chronic Pain Are Inadequately Managed, and Ongoing Primary and Specialty Care Is Associated with Improved Substance Use Outcomes. To read more, click here. |
| Posted in News & Updates |
Pediatrics Group Releases Updated Guidelines on Neonatal Drug Withdrawal |
| January 31st, 2012 |
Join Together (1/31/12): The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has released updated guidelines for doctors and hospitals on how they can identify and monitor infants exposed to opioids and other drugs of addiction. The group notes there has been an alarming increase in the last decade in the number of newborns who suffer through withdrawal from a variety of opioid drugs. To read more from Join Together, click here. To read the updated guidelines from the AAP, click here. |
| Posted in News & Updates |
The Bottom Line for New Mandatory Insurance Coverage of Tobacco Cessation Services |
| January 30th, 2012 |
Join Together (1/24/12): At a time when financial resources for tobacco control are scarce, a new federal law expands insurance coverage to cover tobacco cessation services. Under the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), private insurance plans as well as Medicaid must now cover tobacco cessation services with little to no cost sharing for patients. While this as an important step toward universal insurance coverage for comprehensive tobacco cessation services, it must be pointed out that the ACA law only requires mandatory coverage for pregnant women covered by Medicaid, leaving other Medicaid beneficiaries out of the mandatory coverage provision. Ironically, this population represents the group most affected by the tobacco epidemic. Smoking rates among Medicaid enrollees is nearly double that of the general population. Millions of smokers are being left behind, and the ACA’s requirement for expanded Medicaid coverage without tobacco cessation for low-income populations may cause this disparity to grow. To read more, click here. |
| Posted in News & Updates |
ASAM Board Adopts New Prescription Drug Diversion, Misuse and Addiction Policy Statement |
| January 27th, 2012 |
ASAM (1/26/12): ASAM board announces adoption of “Public Policy Statement on Measures to Counteract Prescription Drug Diversion, Misuse and Addiction.” The American Society of Addiction Medicine recommends that the following components be included in any public policy response to the growing problem of prescription drug addiction, diversion, misuse and overdose deaths: Prescriber Education, Patient Education, Medical School and Residency Education, Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (PDMP) and Better Data Through Research. To read more, click here. |
| Posted in News & Updates |
Funded wholly or in part by the federal Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant Fund (CFDA #93.959) as a project of the NC Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities & Substance Abuse Services.