Addiction Medicine: Beyond The Abstract

In this episode, Dr. Ryan Alexander joins the show to discuss findings from his new study Withdrawal Signs and Symptoms Among Patients Positive for Fentanyl With and Without Xylazine.    Dr. Ryan Alexander is an addiction medicine specialist and is currently the medical director for substance use services at McNabb Center in Knoxville, TN and is an assistant professor at the University of Tennessee Graduate School of Medicine. He completed medical school at the DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine in East Tennessee, his residency in preventive medicine and public health at Griffin Hospital/Yale School of Medicine, and a fellowship in addiction medicine at Yale University School of Medicine. In addition, he completed a Masters of Public Health at Yale School of Public Health. In addition to treating patients, Dr. Alexander conducts clinical research and has published multiple articles related to addiction medicine. He also regularly teaches medical students, residents, and other medical professionals about t

In this episode, Dr. Ekaterina Pivovarova joins host Shawn McNeil to discuss the findings from her new article Collaborating With Jails to Provide Community-based Medication for Opioid Use Disorder: Qualitative Perspectives From MOUD Treatment Providers. Dr. Pivovarova is a licensed clinical psychologist and an associate professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School. - Article link: Collaborating With Jails to Provide Community-based Medication for Opioid Use Disorder: Qualitative Perspectives From MOUD Treatment Providers

In this episode, Dr. Christine Neeb sits down to discuss integrated treatment programs and how this model could potentially be adapted to other populations with SUD. Dr. Neeb is a Visiting Associate Professor and the Director of Integrated Primary Care and Addiction in the Division of General Internal Medicine at the University of Colorado Anschutz. She is board certified in Family Medicine and Addiction Medicine and focuses on novel strategies to expand access to treatment of substance use disorders, including methadone maintenance therapy, in underserved populations and in the primary care setting. - Integration of a Community Opioid Treatment Program Into a Federally Qualified Health Center

Podcast host Shawn McNiel, MD, is joined by Michael Incze, MD, MSEd to discuss his new article Expert Panel Consensus of the Effectiveness and Implementation of Models to Support Posthospitalization Care Transitions for People With Substance Use Disorders which aimed to establish a hierarchy of existing SUD care transition models in 2 categories-effectiveness and implementation-using an expert consensus approach. Dr. Michael Incze is a primary care physician in the Division of General Internal Medicine who is board certified in internal medicine and addiction medicine. His clinical interests include patient education, high value care, and caring for vulnerable populations including people experiencing homelessness and people with substance use disorders. He regularly volunteers at the Fourth Street Clinic, a federally qualified health center that specialized in providing care to people experiencing homelessness. He is a volunteer physician at the Rosebud Indian Health Service hospital in South Dakota. He also

In this episode of Beyond The Abstract, Dr. Joji Suzuki stops by the show to discuss his recent co-authored review on GLP-1 agonists and their potential role in addiction treatment. Dr. Suzuki is the founding Director of the Division of Addiction Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry, Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), and an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School (HMS). He is board certified in both Addiction Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine, and has continued to maintain his clinical role as an inpatient addiction consultant at BWH. He has received NIH funding continuously since 2017, having completed a K23 Career Development Award to receive training in conducting clinical trials with an emphasis on research to improve the care of hospitalized patients. He is now a principal investigator on multiple NIH funded trials to evaluate novel pharmacologic and psychosocial treatments for substance use disorders.   The Efficacy of GLP-1 Agonists in Treating Substance Use Disorder in Pati

Host Shawn McNeil, MD, is joined by Michelle Lofwall, MD, DFAPA, DFASAM,  a professor in the Department of Behavioral Science and Psychiatry at the University of Kentucky and Medical Director of UK’s Robert Straus and First Bridge Clinics, which provide comprehensive OUD treatment within the UK Center on Drug and Alcohol Research. Dr. Lofwall and  her co-authors examined the relationship between the dose in the early stages of treatment and the subsequent risk of death and found some surprising results.   Higher First 30-Day Dose of Buprenorphine for Opioid Use Disorder Treatment Is Associated With Decreased Mortality   Journal of Addiction Medicine 18(3):p 319-326, 5/6 2024 May-June 2024

Podcast host Shawn McNiel, MD, is joined by Noa Krawczyk, PhD, an assistant professor in the Department of Population Health at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, and an author of Initiatives to Support the Transition of Patients With Substance Use Disorders From Acute Care to Community-based Services Among a National Sample of Nonprofit Hospitals. Dr. Krawczyk discusses the gap in transition of acute care to community care services among most US hospitals, efforts to increase acute care interventions, and how clinicians providing SUD treatment can help hospitals identify and implement best practices to support continuity of care.   Follow Dr. Krawczyk on Twitter @noakrawczyk     Article, Authors, and Links: Initiatives to Support the Transition of Patients With Substance Use Disorders From Acute Care to Community-based Services Among a National Sample of Nonprofit Hospitals. Krawczyk, Noa PhD; Rivera, Bianca D. MPH; Chang, Ji E. PhD; Lindenfeld, Zoe MPH; Franz, Berkeley PhD Journal of Addiction Medicine 18(2):

Xylazine Use Among People Who Inject Drugs, Philadelphia 2022   Host Shawn McNiel, MD,  is joined by Marissa Tan, DO, an Epidemiology Intelligence Service (EIS) Fellow for the Center of Disease Control and Prevention through the Philadelphia Department of Public Health. Dr. Tan and her co-authors sought to help clinicians better identify individuals at risk and inform patients and clinicians about xylazine risk factors. Dr. Tan discusses their findings from National HIV Behavioral Surveillance Survey among persons who inject drugs data and offers recommendations for clinicians and public health professionals.    Show Links: Xylazine Use Among People Who Inject Drugs, Philadelphia 2022 Journal of Addiction Medicine, 18(2):p 194-200, 3/4 2024. March-April 2024

Podcast host Shawn McNeil, MD, is joined by Joshua Sharfstein, MD, and Sara Whaley, MPH, from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health who delve into the strategic allocation of $56 billion from opioid litigation settlements. As they discuss the principles for effective fund utilization, they highlight opportunities for addiction medicine specialists to play a pivotal role in guiding state and local governments to spend these resources wisely to save lives.   Journal of Addiction Medicine, November-December 2023 Opioid Settlements: The Role for Addiction Medicine in Guiding Effective Spending   Also of Interest Principles for the Use of Funds From the Opioid Litigation Developed by a coalition of organizations across the spectrum of the substance use field including physicians, addiction medicine specialists, recovery, treatment, and harm reduction.

In episode 28 of  Addiction Medicine: Beyond the Abstract, host Shawn McNeil, MD is joined my Ashish Thakrar, MD, MS, an addiction medicine specialist and Assistant Professor of Medicine with the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Thakrar discusses the outcome of his research, which aimed to determine whether fentanyl concentration is associated with the severity of opioid withdrawal.   Article Link: https://journals.lww.com/journaladdictionmedicine/abstract/2023/07000/association_of_urine_fentanyl_concentration_with.18.aspx   Ashish Thakrar, MD,  X (Twitter) Handle: @especially_APT   Journal of Addiction Medicine. 17(4):447-453, July/August 2023.

The language used to describe people with substance use disorder impacts stigma and influences clinical decision-making. Host Dr. Shawn McNeil, MD discusses with Dr. Scott G. Weiner, MD the presence of stigmatizing language in clinical notes and detects patient- and provider-level differences. ----more---- Based on original research published in the Journal of Addiction Medicine July/August 2023 - Volume 17 - Issue 4   The Incidence and Disparities in Use of Stigmatizing Language in Clinical Notes for Patients With Substance Use Disorder

The language used to describe people with substance use disorder impacts stigma and influences clinical decision-making. Host Dr. Shawn McNeil, MD discusses with Dr. Scott G. Weiner, MD the presence of stigmatizing language in clinical notes and detects patient- and provider-level differences.   Based on original research published in the Journal of Addiction Medicine July/August 2023 - Volume 17 - Issue 4   The Incidence and Disparities in Use of Stigmatizing Language in Clinical Notes for Patients With Substance Use Disorder

Examining the Primary Care Experience of Patients With Opioid Use Disorder: A Qualitative Study In episode 26 of Addiction Medicine: Beyond the Abstract, host Shawn McNeil, MD, is joined by Michael Incze, MD, MSEd. Dr. Incze is a primary care physician at the University of Utah Health Division of General Internal Medicine. He is board certified in internal health and addiction medicine. Dr. Incze will discuss the advantages of primary care-based SUD treatment, focusing on both the perspective of patients and clinicians.   Journal of Addiction Medicine, July/August 2023   https://journals.lww.com/journaladdictionmedicine/pages/articleviewer.aspx?year=2023&issue=07000&article=00009&type=Fulltext&context=featuredarticles&collectionid=1

Meet JAM Editor-in-Chief, David A. Fiellin, MD, FASAM   Dr. Fiellin is an internist, board certified in addiction medicine. He is professor of Medicine and Emergency Medicine at Yale School of Medicine, and Public Health at Yale School of Public Health; vice chief of Faculty Affairs for the Department of Internal Medicine’s Section of General Internal Medicine; and serves as the inaugural director of the Program in Addiction Medicine at Yale. Dr. Fiellin has focused his scholarly work on improving access to and the quality of substance use prevention and treatment, especially in general healthcare settings. His research focuses on the efficacy, effectiveness, and implementation of treatments for opioid use disorder and alcohol use disorder in office-based, primary care, Emergency Department, hospital, obstetrical and gynecologic practices, and HIV specialty settings. He has served and is serving as principal investigator and co-investigator on multiple NIH-funded research projects using a variety of research

In episode twenty-four of Addiction Medicine: Beyond the Abstract, host Shawn McNeil, MD is joined by Dr. Jed Barash, a Neurologist from Massachusetts. In his paper, Dr. Barsh and his colleagues discuss using an existing syndromic surveillance system to monitor for possible cases of opioid-associated amnestic syndrome in the state of Massachusetts.   Article: LINK Guest Twitter: @JedBarash

In episode twenty two of Addiction Medicine: Beyond the Abstract, host Shawn McNeil, MD, is joined by Amy Kennedy, MD, MS. Dr. Kennedy is an Acting Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington and Director of GMS Addiction Medicine Program at the VA Puget Sound Healthcare System. In her paper, Dr. Kennedy discusses barriers and facilitators of the prescription of HIV preexposure prophylaxis to high-risk injection drug users by buprenorphine prescribers. Journal of Addiction Medicine, May/June 2021 Article Link Twitter: @AmyJoKennedy

February 14, 2022 In episode twenty-three of Addiction Medicine: Beyond the Abstract, host Shawn McNeil, MD is joined by Catalina Lopez-Quintero, MD, PhD, MPH. Dr. Lopez-Quintero is an Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Florida. In her paper, Dr. Lopez-Quintero discusses racial-ethnic differences in reasons for misuse of prescription medications among a nationally representative sample of US adults.

Addiction Medicine: Beyond the Abstract (Episode 21). Host Shawn McNeil, MD, is joined by Simeon Kimmel, MD, who discusses a trend of referral rejections for post-acute medical care among patients with substance use disorders and patients receiving opioid agonist treatment Dr. Kimmel (@simkimmel) is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Boston University School of Medicine and Attending Physician at Boston Medical Center. Journal of Addiction Medicine, January/February 2021, Rejection of Patients With Opioid Use Disorder Referred for Post-acute Medical Care Before and After an Anti-discrimination Settlement in Massachusetts.

In episode 20 of Addiction Medicine: Beyond the Abstract, we are joined by Tami Mark, PhD. She is a Senior Fellow of Behavioral Health Financing and Quality Measurement for RTI International. Dr. Mark discusses patient placement criteria for addiction treatment and multidimensional assessments, which was published in the March/April 2021 issue of Journal of Addiction Medicine. Article: LINK

In episode 19 of Addiction Medicine: Beyond the Abstract, we are joined by MacKenzie Peltier, PhD. She is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine. In her paper, Dr. Peltier discusses sex-specific vulnerabilities observed among individuals with opioid use disorder.