Download the Current Opioid Misuse Measure (COMM) tool here.
The Current Opioid Misuse Measure (COMM)™ is a brief patient self-assessment to monitor chronic pain patients on opioid therapy. The COMM™ was developed with guidance from a group of pain and addiction experts and input from pain management clinicians in the field. Experts and providers identified six key issues to determine if patients already on long-term opioid treatment are exhibiting aberrant medication-related behaviors:
STATE HOUSE – Today, at a ceremonial bill signing held at The Providence Center-Recovery Navigation Program, Governor Gina Raimondo signed several bills into law that will help combat the state’s opioid crisis. In attendance at the ceremony were the legislative sponsors of the five bills and Department of Health Director Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott…
Beyond the Pill: Effective Strategies for Managing Chronic Pain and Reducing Opioid Usage SOURCE: National Council for Behavioral Health
Deaths from drug overdoses are the number one cause of injury death in the U.S. Most of these deaths are related to the misuse of prescription opioids and heroin. While men were more likely than women to die of opioid overdose, the number of overdose deaths from opioids among women has increased substantially. Since 1999, women’s deaths have quadrupled from prescription opioid overdose. https://www.cdc.gov/cdcgrandrounds/archives/2017/january2017.htm
Download the PDF: Does_Addiction_Affect_Men_Different_Than_Women?
ABOUT THE AUTHUR: PAMELA SHULTZ, MD, FASM
A physician and educator, Dr. Pamela Shultz oversees medical programs and leads multidisciplinary care teams at the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation’s campus in Center City, Minnesota. Dr. Shultz earned her medical degree at the University of Illinois and completed fellowships in nephrology at Case Western Reserve University and in addiction medicine at the University of Minnesota. She has served on the staffs of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in Minneapolis, Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation’s treatment center for teens and young adults in Plymouth, Minnesota, and Meridian Behavioral Health. Dr. Shultz also serves as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Minnesota’s Department of Family Medicine and at the Hazelden Betty Ford Graduate School of Addiction Studies and is a Fellow of the American Society of Addiction Continued on back Medicine.
This review highlights research on sex-based differences in pain perception and treatment. We sought to illuminate the complex factors contributing to differences in pain and analgesic responses between males and females, ranging from psychosocial to biological processes.
Some babies born to opioid using pregnant women may experience Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS). Populations of women who may give birth to infants with NAS include women who use heroin, women who use or misuse prescription opioids (e.g. prescription pain medications), or women undergoing MAT for opioid use disorders. The resources below offer additional information.
“Drug overdoses represent a public health crisis that is as urgent as any we have ever confronted in Rhode Island. Over the last five years, we have lost more than 1,000 people to drug overdoses, and they have come from almost every community in the state.
As a parent, my heart breaks for the hundreds of Rhode Island families who have lost loved ones to addiction and overdose. We must demand and make swift change to address this crisis and promote treatment, prevention and recovery.”
Gina M. Raimondo, Governor
Addressing substance use is critical to providing quality care in integrated treatment settings. Many individuals who suffer from a substance use disorder also suffer from other chronic comorbid health conditions. Integrated treatment planning that includes substance use screening and treatment is key to providing better health outcomes in integrated care.
This two-course series offers information and resources for providers serving individuals with serious mental illness and co-occurring substance use disorder.
https://www.samhsa.gov/recovery-to-practice/clinical-edu-opportunities-recovery-oriented-practice
For more than two centuries, addicted and recovering people in America have been the object of language created by others. People experiencing severe and persistent alcohol and other drug problems have inherited a language not of their own making that has been ill suited to accurately portray their experience to others or to serve as a catalyst for personal change.
Screening for alcohol and substance misuse is necessary to detect the complicated and highly risky behavior of addiction in the elderly population. The guidelines to identify, screen, assess, and treat an elderly person struggling with addiction must address the complex presentations that occur with aging. Co-morbid conditions, such as depression and anxiety, increase the vulnerability of misuse as well as misdiagnosis. Additionally, heavy drinking can worsen health conditions, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, congestive heart failure, liver problems, osteoporosis, impaired motor functioning and fall risks, and neurological/degenerative cognitive disorders. Both alcohol and substance misuse can cause significant and severe interactions with existing medication regimens that include: aspirin, acetaminophen, cold and allergy medicine, cough syrup, sleeping pills, pain medication, and anxiety or depression medicine. Unfortunately, detection of misuse does not occur at an early stage of misuse, but more often at critical and acute stages of medical interventions. Hospitalized adults over the age of 40 with a diagnosis of alcoholism have an estimated cost of $60 billion per year.
This paper was prepared for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office on Women’s Health with contract support from NORC at the University of Chicago.
https://www.womenshealth.gov/files/documents/white-paper-opioid-508.pdf