Resource Center: Physician and staff training, Addiction

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) provides this website so that physicians can improve the deliver and financing of prevention, treatment and recovery support services to patients.

The California Society of Addiction Medicine (CSAM) website provides information and materials for buprenorphine treatment providers, including screening tools and sample consent and patient agreement forms, and provides links to other helpful resources.

The crisis of opioid addiction in America has been fueled by the diversion of prescription pain pills and the emergence of pure and inexpensive heroin. Until recently, benefits of and access to therapy were limited. This situation changed in 2003 with Food and Drug Administration approval of buprenorphine for the office-based treatment of opioid dependence. Now armed with a potent drug, primary care physicians can treat addicted patients in their own practice and from their own neighborhood, but first we must overcome deficiencies in our training and personal biases about addicts and what they need. This a report of one doctor’s progress.

This is a CME course designed to introduce and demonstrate basic motivational interviewing techniques for primary care.

Description of the guidelines that encourage state medical boards to adopt consistent standards in terms of addiction care.

Information from the CSAT Buprenorphine Information Center on the criteria required to receive waiver under DATA 2000.