Alcoholism & Drug Abuse Weekly最新文献

New Yorkers can get free fentanyl test strips, xylazine test strips and/or naloxone from the state Office of Addiction Services and Supports (OASAS). These can be requested from the local Opioid Overdose Prevention Program or a pharmacy, according to OASAS, if supplies are needed immediately. For a directory of Opioid Overdose Prevention Programs, go here. Delivery will take two weeks, according to OASAS. To order the test strips and naloxone, submit a request through the website: https://forms.ny.gov/s3/Harm-Reduction-Order-Form. The initiative is paid for by the Opioid Settlement Fund.

Last week Chinazo Cunningham, M.D., commissioner of the New York State Office of Addiction Services and Supports (OASAS), announced her election to the National Academy of Medicine (NAM). “I am extremely honored to be one of the newest members of the National Academy of Medicine,” she said.

Carlo DiClemente, Ph.D., the legendary creator, with Prochaska, of the stages of change theory for motivational interviewing, talked about the relevance of this 40-year-old model in current treatment at the annual meeting of the Association for Addiction Professionals (NAADAC) in Washington last week. He noted not to put people in one of the “boxes”: pre-contemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, maintenance and relapse. Substance use is more fluid than that, and in fact, relapse is not itself a substance use problem, he said — it's a problem that is probable and to be expected and dealt with in any health behavior such as diabetes, diet and exercise.

The annual AMERSA Conference (Association for Multidisciplinary Education and Research in Substance use and Addiction) will be held November 14-16 in Chicago. For more information, go to https://amersa.org/

Last week California announced that Medi-Cal, the state's Medicaid program, will pay for substance use disorder (SUD) treatment with “traditional health care practices in use since time immemorial,” according to a press release from Gov. Gavin Newsom. The two types of treatment covered include those used by Native Americans.

We asked Chinazo Cunningham, M.D., director of New York's OASAS, if she thinks the federal methadone regulations go far enough, or if she would like to see OTPs have even fewer rules. In an exclusive interview, she told ADAW the changes are “supported by data,” and data is where Cunningham is headed. “It will be really important to see how [the changes] impact access to methadone treatment and outcomes. Clinical judgement is obviously involved,” she said. But OASAS is monitoring and “working with programs to make sure they understand the regulatory changes.” What OASAS wants to know: how many people are coming into treatment, and if they're being retained in treatment.

A viewpoint, “Addressing the Escalating Problems That Patients Encounter When Filling Buprenorphine Prescriptions,” published last week underscores the problems patients have getting buprenorphine prescriptions filled. Clinicians report that they can't find pharmacies who are willing to fill buprenorphine prescriptions. And the authors note that patients need these prescriptions filled immediately, or they risk relapse to street drugs including illicit fentanyl which is deadly.

Language in a new series of state government lawsuits against the owners of social media app TikTok strongly resembles recent warnings from federal leaders about the dangers of social media, from addiction-like changes in the brains of young users to a lack of transparency from technology companies that has impeded a greater understanding of social media's impact.

The finalized rules for opioid treatment programs (OTPs) issued in February were required as of this month. The COMPA Symposium was the perfect time for OTPs to gather to answer the question, at least in New York, about how to decide what the take-home dose should be when there are no longer the 8-point criteria (see ADAW https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adaw.20209). Patients must no longer be stable to get 28 days of take-homes, but it's up to the OTP to decide how many doses a patient can get.

The annual AMERSA Conference (Association for Multidisciplinary Education and Research in Substance use and Addiction) will be held November 14-16 in Chicago. For more information, go to https://amersa.org/