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Three Ways to Update Your Practice’s Substance Use Disorder Education

Free Resources from the National Institute on Drug Abuse Clinical Trial Network Dissemination Initiative

The National Institute on Drug Abuse Clinical Trial Network Dissemination Initiative (NIDA CTN DI) has developed three free educational resources to help you in your work with patients who have substance use disorders (SUD):

• An online resource for implementing alcohol and drug screenings
• Podcasts on new medication options for treating methamphetamine use; and
• A video and fact sheet about the dangers of fentanyl

Online Interactive Screening Resource

Implementing Drug and Alcohol Screening in Primary Care is an online, interactive resource that guides you to create a plan to implement alcohol and drug screening in your primary care setting. You can answer a series of questions about the scope and frequency of screenings, your practice and staff resources, and electronic health record (EHR) options. Use this resource to:
• Select a screening tool and approach;
• Integrate screening into the EHR and your clinical workflows;
• Prepare the practice for screening; and
• Monitor the success of the screening program.

Once created, you can share this plan with your care team. This resource drew from the findings of a May 2021 JAMA Network Open article and was developed with New York University Langone Health. Comparison of Methods for Alcohol and Drug Screening in Primary Care Clinics by McNeely and co-authors discusses the barriers to screening all adults for alcohol and substance use in primary care settings.

Educational Podcasts

Medication treatment options for methamphetamine use disorder are a critical issue. Between 2019 and 2020, overdose deaths—including those from psychostimulants like methamphetamine—doubled in the United States. Despite this increase, effective medication treatment options for methamphetamine use disorder did not exist until now.

To highlight these new treatment options, NIDA collaborated with several partners to develop two podcasts that range from 15 to 30 minutes. NIDA: A New Medication Option for the Treatment of Methamphetamine Use Disorder spotlights the findings and clinical implications of the pivotal 2021 study, Bupropion and Naltrexone in Methamphetamine Use Disorder by Trivodi and colleagues in the New England Journal of Medicine. The podcast is hosted by the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine and features two of the study authors. The authors discuss the ADAPT-2 Clinical Trial and its findings on the use of extended-release (ER) bupropion plus injectable naltrexone to treat methamphetamine use disorder.

The Evolving Pharmacologic Intervention for Methamphetamine Use Disorder: A Focus on ADAPT-2 podcast discusses how the findings from the ADAPT 2 trial can help address the personal and societal burdens of methamphetamine use disorder in the U.S. This podcast was produced with ReachMD and provides free continuing medical education (CME) credit.

Video and Fact Sheet

NIDA CTN DI partnered with staff from the UPenn Center for Addiction Medicine and Policy to produce Reducing the Risks of Fentanyl in the U.S., a fentanyl harm reduction video and fact sheet. The number of opioid overdose deaths in the United States have now exceeded a sobering benchmark: 100,000 in a 12-month period. These deaths were largely driven by illegally produced opioids, benzodiazepines, and cocaine, and synthetic cannabinoids tainted with illegally produced, and highly fatal, fentanyl.

Reducing the Risk of Fentanyl in the U.S. is a short, animated video that covers the dangers of fentanyl exposure, who is at risk, and the impact of fentanyl on minorities in less than five minutes. The video highlights the warning signs of a possible overdose and how to use naloxone to reverse an overdose.

Printable fact sheets available in English and Spanish highlight the same information and are available for download from the NIDA CTN DI website. These two resources stress that everyone can be a first responder by carrying naloxone.

These resources were designed to help you maintain your commitment to substance abuse education—your way. You can choose to read, listen, or watch to stay informed in a short amount of time. Visit the NIDA-CTN website at https://nida.nih.gov/nidamed-medical-health-professionals/ctn-dissemination-initiative to access these and many other free SUD resources.