AMERSA is pleased to announce that we have partnered with Sage Publishing as the new publisher of the Substance Abuse journal (SAj.) Sage is a global academic publisher of books, journals, and a growing suite of library products and services. 

The new website for the journal is journals.sagepub.com/home/saj. AMERSA members can access the journal for free via amersa.org/journal-home. All members will receive an email with instructions on how to access our new members portal where member access for the journal is housed. Please contact Adrienne Galloway at adrienne@amersa.org if you have any questions.

Journal Title Change! The AMERSA Board of Directors and the SAj Editorial Team has long recognized that the title of the journal (Substance Abuse) includes pejorative language which can negatively impact the way society perceives persons with substance use and substance use disorder treatments. Thus, we have secured the name Substance Use & Addiction Journal (SAj) with the goal of formally implementing the change with the first issue of 2024.

The 2022 Annual Conference commentary and the presented abstracts are now available here.

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Abstracts for the 2022 AMERSA National Conference may be submitted to one of three categories: 

1. Research – These abstracts report on original research and must include methods, data analyses, results and conclusions. Broad disciplines are represented, including clinical research, implementation science, and education scholarship. 

2. Curricula, Quality Improvement, and Program Innovations – These abstracts report on evaluations of education curricula, quality improvement, implementation science, and/or innovative program initiatives and must include methods, data analyses, results and conclusions. 

3. Clinical Case Presentations – These abstracts describe an illustrative case that reinforces specific learning objectives for the treatment of substance use disorders, complications of substance use/ substance use disorder, or impact of substance use on clinical care. Cases should be based on patients for whom at least one of the author(s) had treated during the course of the patient’s treatment. 

Oral presentations are clustered into concurrent theme-based 60-90 minute sessions with each abstract presentation 10 minutes in duration followed by an additional 5 minute question/answer period. These will be scheduled on Thursday, November 10th and Saturday, November 12th. 

Poster presentations are displayed during a 90-minute evening poster reception with the attendant author(s) available to discuss and present the poster. These will be scheduled Thursday evening. 

Deadline for submission – May 1, 2022 

Please visit www.amersa.org for detailed online submission and instructions. 

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WORKSHOP SUBMISSIONS – Each workshop will be 90 minutes in length and offer interactive learning about a specific substance-use related topic. Workshops must focus on building specific skills in clinical practice, education, research, community action, or policy/advocacy related to substance use. The most desirable workshop sessions will focus on a set of concrete skills or techniques that can be attained and practiced by participants in 90 minutes, and which participants can then introduce into their teaching, practice, research or community following the meeting. Workshop proposals from presenters trained in any discipline will be welcome. Workshop proposals that plan to disseminate information in a lecture or panel format only will not be accepted. 

Accepted workshops will be featured in a concurrent, in-person, interactive, format.

Special recognition will be given for the Best Workshop. The winner of the “Best Workshop” award will be invited to attend the conference the following year, and receive an award and free conference registration.

Deadline for submission – May 1, 2022 

Please visit www.amersa.org for detailed online submission and instructions. 

Alëna A. Balasanova ,MD, Alexis D. Ritvo, MD, MPH, and Joel Yager, MD share their thoughts around their commentary published in in SAj last spring. In this commentary, the authors review skill sets, specialty training, and career outcomes for physicians specializing in the assessment and management of substance use disorders.

“This paper explores similarities and differences between the fields of addiction medicine and addiction psychiatry, discussing specialty training, board certification processes, and professional pathways. When considering consultation or referral to an addiction specialist, these descriptions may help clarify health professionals’ expectations and inform questions they might ask concerning physicians’ primary certification and scope of practice.”

You can read this commentary in SAj Volume 42, Issue 2 or online.

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Evan S. Cole, PhD, Ellen DiDomenico, MS, Sherri Green, PhD, MSW, LCSW, Susan K. R. Heil, PhD, MS, Tandrea Hilliard, PhD, MPH, Sarah E. Mossburg, PhD, MS, Andrew L. Sussman, PhD, Jack Warwick, MPH, John M. Westfall, MD, MPH, Linda Zittleman, MSPH  and Julie G. Salvador, PhD share their own thoughts around their SAj commentary published this last February.

“There are many barriers that primary care providers face to offer opioid use disorder treatment using medications such as buprenorphine and naltrexone in rural settings. This manuscript argues that training and support for the entire clinic using a broad menu of resources is essential, but is not addressed by the DATA 2000 waiver requirement. The manuscript provides clear guidance, based on data across five research studies, regarding best approaches for engaging and supporting rural primary care providers to start MOUD treatment and help address the OUD crisis nationally. Our commentary is unique as it summarizes cross-cutting themes from grantees in five different states, working with a broad mix of clinic types (e.g., solo practice vs rural health system), thus enhancing the generalizability that our findings might offer to providers, payer, and policymakers.”

Read this article now here and follow SAj on twitter to stay up to date with new publications!