Addiction medicine

About: Addiction medicine is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 1070 publications have been published within this topic receiving 23685 citations.

Opinion of health professionals and drug users before the forthcoming opening of the first drug consumption room in Paris: a quantitative cross-sectional study.

Abstract: On the brink of the opening of the first French drug consumption room in Paris, the general opinion of the local involved health care professionals and drug users was not known. The objective of this study was to determine their expectations and to search for influencing factors. We carried out a quantitative cross-sectional study. A multiple choice questionnaire was proposed to the surrounding willing general practitioners (GPs) and pharmacists, to the emergency doctors of Lariboisiere hospital, and to the professionals of the harm reduction facilities and their drug users (PWUD). For each question, there was a choice between seven answers, from “− 3” (very negative impact) to “+ 3” (very positive impact). The influence of the characteristics of each group on its mean answers was explored by Mann-Whitney, Kruskal-Wallis, and Spearman’s tests. The median expectations among the groups of responding GPs (N = 62), other health care professionals (N = 82), and PWUD (N = 57) were mainly positive. They thought that the drug consumption room (DCR) would improve the health of PWUD, reduce their at-risk behaviors, would not increase drug use or drug dealing in the neighborhood, and would reduce nuisance in the public space. Only the group of GPs expressed that the DCR could decrease the quietness of the neighborhood, and only the group of PWUD had higher expectations that the DCR would decrease the number of arrests and the number of violent behavior. GPs’ expectations were significantly better in terms of health improvement of PWUD and reducing their precariousness if they had a previous experience in addiction medicine (Mann-Whitney, p = 0.004 and p = 0.019), with a longer practice (Spearman’s rho, p = 0.021 and p = 0.009), and if they were currently prescribing opioid substitution treatments (Mann-Whitney, p = 0.030 and p = 0.002). Among non-GPs, those who were working in addiction medicine centers had significantly better expectations than pharmacists, and the professionals of the local emergency department had intermediate expectations. Health care professionals and drug users had a positive opinion of the to-be-created Parisian drug consumption room. Experience in addiction medicine influenced positively health professionals’ expectations.

Promoting addiction medicine teaching through functional mentoring by co-training generalist chief residents with faculty mentors.

Abstract: Background: Generalist physicians should play a vital role in identifying and managing individuals with substance use but are inadequately trained to do so. Methods: This 5-year (2008–2012) control...

Addiction Medicine: A Place for Faculty Development

Abstract: Addiction medicine must fight for its space in the undergraduate, graduate and continuing medical education curricula, as do most other clinical domains. Often curriculum time is provided to specialty areas when a clear relevance to the overall curriculum is made obvious. Increasing the awareness of addiction medicine through institutionalized faculty development programs can serve to foster the integration of this specialized curriculum. Institutionalizing faculty development is proposed in a description of a four-phase model. Specific recommendations of goals, processes, and critical steps in the faculty development process supporting scholarship leading to curricular change are described.