In this video, Michael Weaver, MD, gives a preview of his session at our Practical Updates in Primary Care 2021 Virtual Series, in which he will discuss diagnosing and managing substance misuse in a primary care setting.
Additional Resources:
Practical Updates in Primary Care newsroom.
For more information about PUPC 2021 Virtual Series and to register for upcoming sessions, visit https://practicalupdates.consultant360.com/.
Michael Weaver, MD, is the medical director for the Center of Neurobehavioral Research on Addiction and a professor of psychiatry at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.
TRANSCRIPT:
Michael Weaver: This is Dr Michael Weaver. I am a professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. I'm going to be talking at the Practical Updates in Primary Care conference on the topic of recognition and management of substance abuse.
This is something that clinicians are confronted with on a regular basis. We may not always recognize what's going on with our patients. If it does go unrecognized, it can be very frustrating for treating all of the other conditions that we deal with in primary care.
I'm going to talk about a number of different aspects related to recognition and management of substance abuse. We'll talk a little bit about the risk factors. then we'll talk about some of the ways that we can identify it. I'm going to go into the different classes of drugs and how they're similar to one another. Some of the effects and side effects how they're different from one another, at least the ones that are more commonly seen in the primary care setting. I'm also going to introduce you to a simple screening tool that can be used in the primary care setting.
Then we'll talk a little bit more about how we can do some brief interventions with our patients, including introducing some handy mnemonics that you can use to remember some of the things to include when talking to patients about how they’re maybe using alcohol, tobacco or other drugs in the primary care setting in the context of good health management.
Finally, I'll talk a little bit about ways that we can treat various addictions once you've identified what's going on with your patients. This includes some medications that can be useful and that can be prescribed in a primary care setting without special training, especially for common things that we see like tobacco, including e‑cigarettes that are popular nowadays, and also for alcohol. With a little advanced training, you can even offer options to your patients who have opioid use disorder. For those patients that need referral to a specialist. I'm going to talk about some resources that are useful in order to connect patients with specialty care in addiction medicine.
I hope you enjoy the conference and I'm looking‑forward to presenting the material to you.