AMERSA, Author at AMERSA

The Authors’ Own Words: Experiences of burnout among drug counselors in a large opioid treatment program: A qualitative investigation

Jan 9, 2020 by AMERSA

The Authors’ Own Words:

We ask authors to describe their impressions regarding the implications of their accepted work, how their findings will change practice, and what is noteworthy about the work.

Experiences of burnout among drug counselors in a large opioid treatment program: A qualitative investigation

Mark Beitel PhD; Lindsay Oberleitner PhD; Dharushana Muthulingam MD, MSc; David Oberleitner PhD; Lynn M. Madden PhD, MPA; Ruthanne Marcus PhD, MPH; Anthony Eller BS; Madeline H. Bono; & Declan T. Barry, PhD

Substance Abuse Vol. 39, Iss. 2, 2018

“The scale-up of medication-assisted treatment is crucial for addressing the current opioid treatment gap in the US. One barrier to scale-up is concern about the impact on staff of increased patient volume. Finding from this quality improvement study of drug counselors, employed at large opioid treatment programs whose capacities were expanding, yielded lower than expected rates of burnout. Participants reported a variety of onsite (e.g., taking breaks) and offsite (e.g., taking an exercise class) coping strategies to prevent burnout. Many strategies were low-cost and transportable to other settings. Overall, our findings suggest that drug counselor burnout is not inevitable, and opioid treatment programs might benefit from routinely seeking counselor feedback on burnout and implementing practical recommendations to enhance staff engagement and reduce burnout.”

The Authors’ Own Words: Implementation and Evaluation of an Opioid Overdose Education and Naloxone Distribution (OEND) Program at a Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC)

Jan 7, 2020 by AMERSA

The Authors’ Own Words:

We ask authors to describe their impressions regarding the implications of their accepted work, how their findings will change practice, and what is noteworthy about the work.

Implementation and Evaluation of an Opioid Overdose Education and Naloxone Distribution (OEND) Program at a Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC)

Julienne B. Pauly PharmD, BCPP; Christine M. Vartan PharmD, BCPS; & Abigail T. Brooks PharmD, BCPS

Substance Abuse Vol. 39, Iss. 2, 2018

“Being that accidental opioid overdose has become a national epidemic, it is important to educate all individuals who utilize opioids on risk mitigation strategy. Patients on chronic prescribed opioid therapy were referred to participate in this VAMC OEND programming; many were surprised to learn that despite being on an opioid regimen long-term, accidental overdose can still occur. Participants were encouraged to bring a significant other/friend to the education or identify someone to teach, as the bystander will likely be applying this life-saving information. The project authors also calculated the risk index for overdose (RIOSORD) and serious opioid induced respiratory depression (OIRD) score on all OEND participants. The RIOSORD/ORID is a novel tool that can be utilized by facilities seeking to target patients for OEND or similar programming. The findings and failures of this project can be utilized by other facilities who desire to allocate resources to OEND programming.”

The Authors’ Own Words: Integration of a Clinical Pharmacy Specialist into a Substance Use Disorder Training drug addiction counselors to deliver a brief psychosocial psychoeducational intervention for chronic pain among patients in opioid agonist treatment: A pilot investigation.

Jan 7, 2020 by AMERSA

The Authors’ Own Words:

We ask authors to describe their impressions regarding the implications of their accepted work, how their findings will change practice, and what is noteworthy about the work.

Integration of a Clinical Pharmacy Specialist into a Substance Use Disorder Training drug addiction counselors to deliver a brief psychosocial psychoeducational intervention for chronic pain among patients in opioid agonist treatment: A pilot investigation.

Jenna L. Butner MD; Curtis Bone MD; Caridad C. Ponce Martinez MD; Grace Kwon MD; Mark Beitel PhD; Lynn M. Madden PhD; Madeline H. Bono; Anthony Eller BS; & Declan T. Barry PhD

Substance Abuse Vol. 39, Iss. 2, 2018

“Initiatives to reduce providers’ perceived inability, reported discomfort, and lack of interest in managing chronic pain have centered on enhancing curricula at medical and professional schools. This approach has met with mixed success; it appears that training providers on a biomedical model of pain management emphasizing pathophysiology, pharmacotherapy, and surgical interventions does not automatically enhance perceived ability to manage chronic pain. Findings from this pilot study suggest that it is both feasible and acceptable to train front-line opioid agonist treatment drug counselors with an inexpensive, brief, onsite psychoeducational intervention for assessing and addressing chronic pain; on average attendees continued to perceive a beneficial effect on their clinical work with patients six months later. These findings underscore the importance of conducting further research on training providers, including those in opioid agonist treatment settings, on the biopsychosocial model of chronic pain, and targeting strategies that might enhance their clinical management of patients with chronic pain.”

The Authors’ Own Words: Retention of student pharmacists’ knowledge and skills regarding overdose management with naloxone

Jan 6, 2020 by AMERSA

The Authors’ Own Words:

We ask authors to describe their impressions regarding the implications of their accepted work, how their findings will change practice, and what is noteworthy about the work.

Retention of student pharmacists’ knowledge and skills regarding overdose management with naloxone

Anita N. Jacobson PharmD; Jeffrey P. Bratberg PharmD; Miranda Monk; & John Ferrentino

Substance Abuse Vol. 39, Iss. 2, 2018

“Substance use disorder education, including information on naloxone, is overall lacking in schools and colleges of pharmacy. As the opioid crisis drives greater inclusion of this content into pharmacy curricula, we compared different methods to deliver naloxone content: didactic alone or didactic plus an objective-structured clinical examination with a standardized patient. Although our findings did not show many statistically significant differences between these groups of student pharmacists, we believe this paper will motivate educators from all health professions to add naloxone instruction to existing SUD curricula and to have latitude incorporating the training as feasible given the knowledge retention and increased confidence among both groups of students.”

The Authors’ Own Words: Integration of a Clinical Pharmacy Specialist into a Substance Use Disorder Intensive Outpatient Treatment Program to Improve Prescribing Rates of Alcohol Use Disorder Pharmacotherapy

Jan 6, 2020 by AMERSA

The Authors’ Own Words:

We ask authors to describe their impressions regarding the implications of their accepted work, how their findings will change practice, and what is noteworthy about the work.

Integration of a Clinical Pharmacy Specialist into a Substance Use Disorder Intensive Outpatient Treatment Program to Improve Prescribing Rates of Alcohol Use Disorder Pharmacotherapy

Erica Dimitropoulos PharmD, Stephanie Bertucci LICSW; & Kara Wong PharmD, BCPP

Substance Abuse Vol. 39, Iss. 2, 2018

“The pharmacist’s role in the management of substance use disorders is not currently well defined. In an effort to explore this further, our study employed a bridge service that utilized pharmacists to improve access to evidence-based alcohol use disorder pharmacotherapy. Using this model, we were able to optimize treatment by offering medications to supplement psychotherapy for patients enrolled in an intensive outpatient program. Our intervention serves as an example for other facilities looking for novel ways to integrate pharmacists into substance use disorder clinics.”