USPSTF: Not enough evidence for teens, but adults should be screened for alcohol
Last week, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) came out with its recommendations for alcohol screening, published in theJournal of the American Medical Association. The article, “Screening and Behavioral Counseling Interventions to Reduce Unhealthy Alcohol Use in Adolescents and Adults: US Preventive Services Task Force Recommendation Statement,” updated the organization's 2013 recommendations, mainly changing the screening term from “alcohol misuse” to “unhealthy alcohol use.” The task force, which is nonfederal, said the evidence supports screening and brief behavioral counseling for unhealthy al...
Source: Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Weekly - November 16, 2018 Category: Addiction Authors: Alison Knopf Tags: Articles Source Type: research

Briefly Noted
The American Medical Association (AMA) has pushed back against the movement to arbitrarily restrict opioids for pain management. The AMA's House of Delegates last week approved a resolution that praised the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for “its efforts to prevent incidence of new cases of opioid misuse, addiction, and overdose deaths,” but also urged the AMA to argue against putting blanket limits on the amount and dosage of opioids that physicians can prescribe. “This is a recognition that there are many patients we deal with d aily who are outside the norms proffered by the CDC guideline...
Source: Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Weekly - November 16, 2018 Category: Addiction Tags: Briefly Noted Source Type: research

New York bill would require MAT for all jails and prisons
Last week, a NY coalition of harm ‐reduction organizations, drug policy reformers and treatment providers joined state lawmakers in calling for medication‐assisted treatment (MAT) in all New York jails and prisons. We spoke to Allegra Schorr, president of the Coalition of Medication‐Assisted Treatment Providers and Advocates o f New York State (COMPA), on the need for all three medications — methadone, buprenorphine and naltrexone — to be available in all state and county facilities. (Source: Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Weekly)
Source: Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Weekly - November 16, 2018 Category: Addiction Authors: Alison Knopf Tags: Articles Source Type: research

Kolodny: Pain patients need help, and it may be buprenorphine
Andrew Kolodny, M.D., co ‐director of opioid policy research at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University, spoke earlier this month at the Opioid Crisis conference of the Summit for Clinical Excellence in Bedford, Massachusetts. He noted that the opioid epidemic is different in different st ates. (Source: Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Weekly)
Source: Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Weekly - November 16, 2018 Category: Addiction Authors: Alison Knopf Tags: Articles Source Type: research

Underdosing of methadone still a concern in OTPs, new national data indicate
A significant proportion of methadone patients still are not receiving daily dosing levels that conform to evidence ‐based standards of practice, according to data in a new study published in theJournal of Substance Abuse Treatment. The study's lead researcher, who has looked at this topic over a span of nearly 30 years, believes that even within the nation's opioid treatment programs (OTPs), stigma among some professionals toward use of medication ‐assisted treatment (MAT) contributes to dosing that may prove too low to encourage treatment retention and reduce illicit drug use. (Source: Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Weekly)
Source: Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Weekly - November 16, 2018 Category: Addiction Authors: Gary Enos Tags: Articles Source Type: research

In Case You Haven't Heard
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) reiterated the harmful and ineffective nature of spanking last week, noting that new evidence suggests that spanking may cause harm by affecting normal brain development. The policy statement, “Effective Discipline to Raise Healthy Children,” was published in the December 2018 issue ofPediatrics. It also addresses the harm associated with verbal punishment, such as shaming or humiliation. “The good news is, fewer parents support the use of spanking than they did in the past,” said Robert D. Sege, M.D., Ph.D., a past member of the AAP Committee on Child Abuse and Neglect and ...
Source: Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Weekly - November 16, 2018 Category: Addiction Tags: In Case You Haven't Heard Source Type: research

Coming Up
The 42nd annual Association forMedical Education and Research in Substance Abuse conference will be heldNov. 8 –10 inSan Francisco. For more information, go tohttps://amersa.org/conference/conference ‐registration/. (Source: Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Weekly)
Source: Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Weekly - November 16, 2018 Category: Addiction Tags: Conferences & Events Source Type: research

Correction: NABH, not NAPHS
Alcoholism&Drug Abuse Weekly, Volume 30, Issue 43, Page 7-7, 9 November 2018. (Source: Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Weekly)
Source: Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Weekly - November 12, 2018 Category: Addiction Tags: Erratum Source Type: research

Midterm elections: Health care wins
During the Obama administration, there were states that refused to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) out of spite against President Obama on the part of the governors in those states, and the GOP ‐dominated Congress spent years vowing to repeal it. Last week, the midterm elections, regardless of the number of Democrat and Republican seats gained and lost, showed that health care was the big winner, with voters in three states where President Trump won — Idaho, Nebraska and Utah — votin g overwhelmingly to bring Medicaid expansion to them. New governors in Kansas, Wisconsin and Maine will likely brin...
Source: Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Weekly - November 12, 2018 Category: Addiction Authors: Alison Knopf Tags: Articles Source Type: research

Clarification: 2nd ‐year SOR funds
In the article “Colorado uses federal opioid grants to increase capacity, combat stigma” in last week's issue (seeADAW, Nov. 5), we wrote that Colorado is getting $15 million a year for the State Opioid Response (SOR) grants. However, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration lists the grants as being for up to two years, so that $15 million is actually for FY 2018 and FY 2019. While states are anticipating a second year equal to the first, especially in light of an additional $1.5 billion in appropriations, SOR funding for FY 2019 has not been finalized beyond what has already been announced. (Sour...
Source: Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Weekly - November 12, 2018 Category: Addiction Tags: Clarification Source Type: research

Koob: ACE ‐AUD link, and challenges of medication development
Early ‐life trauma, known as adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), increases the probability of developing an alcohol use disorder (AUD), George F. Koob, Ph.D., director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), toldADAW last week. He also discussed challenges to work on medications to treat AUDs. (Source: Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Weekly)
Source: Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Weekly - November 12, 2018 Category: Addiction Authors: Alison Knopf Tags: Articles Source Type: research

OTPs can be source of needed support for office ‐based treatment providers
The kind of collaboration between generalist physicians and specialty treatment that has become second nature in addressing chronic conditions such as diabetes remains largely absent in the health care community's response to opioid use disorders. The result, say behavioral health experts interviewed byADAW, often can be incomplete or inappropriate care in the office ‐based practices that national leaders increasingly see as the focus of the treatment response to the opioid crisis. (Source: Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Weekly)
Source: Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Weekly - November 12, 2018 Category: Addiction Authors: Gary Enos Tags: Articles Source Type: research

BayMark continues expansion by adding withdrawal management hospital services
BayMark Health Services has bought SpecialCare Hospital Management, which provides specialized inpatient stabilization and withdrawal management services for substance use disorder (SUD) in acute care hospitals. The acquisition, announced Nov. 2, adds this inpatient service to BayMark's growing continuum of care. (Source: Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Weekly)
Source: Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Weekly - November 12, 2018 Category: Addiction Authors: Alison Knopf Tags: Articles Source Type: research

In Case You Haven't Heard
Hours after a disastrous press conference Nov. 7, President Trump fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The name of Chris Christie, former governor of New Jersey and in charge of the commission assigned to help President Trump determine the best way to handle the opioid crisis, was floated as a possible nominee to replace Sessions, whom Trump criticized repeatedly for recusing himself from the Mueller investigation. We heard Christie speak at the American Association for the Treatment of Opioid Dependence awards dinner earlier this year; he was magnificent (seeADAW, March 19). Although a former prosecutor, Christie, unlike...
Source: Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Weekly - November 12, 2018 Category: Addiction Tags: In Case You Haven't Heard Source Type: research

Coming Up
The 42nd annual Association forMedical Education and Research in Substance Abuse conference will be heldNov. 8 –10 inSan Francisco. For more information, go tohttps://amersa.org/conference/conference ‐registration/. (Source: Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Weekly)
Source: Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Weekly - November 12, 2018 Category: Addiction Tags: Conferences & Events Source Type: research