Alcohol, Other Drugs, and Health: Current Evidence--Informing you of the latest clinically relevant research on alcohol, illicit drugs, and health

The Boston Medical Center’s Clinical Addiction Research & Education (CARE) Unit puts out a regular online newsletter "Alcohol, Other Drugs, and Health: Current Evidence."  They also post PowerPoint presentations that mirror each newsletter and online curricula in SUDs.  They host a monthly virtual journal club.  Check out their site!

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The Concept of Treatment-Refractory Addiction: A Call to the Field

Not all patients respond to effective and approved treatment interventions, and there has been growing recognition in the medical field of these “resistant” or refractory illnesses (eg, treatment-resistant depression, resistant hypertension). In the field of substance use disorders, there has not been an explicit acknowledgement of treatment-refractory addiction (TRA) despite substantial evidence that many patients do not respond to standard-of-care treatment interventions. This article provides a justification for TRA as a critically important condition to recognize and define. TRA is not conceptualized as a diagnosis, but as a signal that a current treatment approach has not worked. The article addresses areas in need of research and consensus in order to ensure the approach to TRA is uniform, thoughtfully addressed, and data-driven. By explicitly acknowledging TRA, clinicians, researchers, and patients and their families can begin to explore the unique features of this population an...
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Treatment of overdose in the synthetic opioid era

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CDC’s Draft Clinical Practice Guideline for Prescribing Opioids Now Open for Public Comment

CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control is in the process of updating the   2016 CDC Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain . The draft updated Clinical Practice Guideline for Prescribing Opioids is available for public comment in the Federal Register. The public comment period will be open for 60 days, through April 11, 2022. We encourage all patients, caregivers, providers, and others who care about safe, effective, and informed pain treatment options to submit their comments via the Federal Register docket. It is vitally important to CDC that we receive, process, and understand public feedback during the guideline update process. The guideline is intended to be a clinical tool to improve communication between providers and patients and empower them to make informed, patient-centered decisions related to safe and effective pain care. The guideline recommendations are voluntary and are not intended to be applied as inflexible standards of care or replac...
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