This is the seventh in our series of on-line training modules designed to update practicing clinicians – primarily psychiatrists and nurse practitioners - with respect to classes of psychotropic medications and/or specific psychopharmacologic content areas.

We believe that these trainings will be relevant for your practice. Importantly, we hope that they are more engaging than typical long lectures accompanied by numerous slides, reviewing medication after medication, or study after study.

This one-hour module is designed to aid prescribing clinicians in the treatment of opioid use disorder (OUD). This module features Nasir Naqvi, M.D., Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, and Program Director of the Fellowship in Addiction Psychiatry in Columbia University’s Department of Psychiatry. Additionally, David Lowenthal, M.D., J.D., a Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at CUIMC and the Medical Director of CPI, asks Dr. Naqvi questions that flow from the material being presented.

Dr. Naqvi’s presentation will help learners to:

1. Recognize the gravity of the opioid epidemic in New York State and the United States, including the disparate effect on communities of color and the high-level of comorbidity of opioid use and other psychiatric disorders,
2. Recognize the critical role that medications play in the treatment of opioid use disorders as an evidence-based treatment,
3. Identify the benefits of prescribing buprenorphine to individuals with opioid use disorders in order to become more comfortable prescribing the medication, and
4. Identify details around clinically related topic areas in treating opioid use disorders, namely the need for urine toxicologies, the treatment of co-occurring disorders, and the role of inpatient treatment in individuals with opioid use disorders.

Topics include:

• Medications to treat OUD - especially buprenorphine,
• Epidemiology and impact of OUD,
• Evaluation/diagnosis of individuals with OUD,
• Treatment of comorbid psychiatric disorders, and
• The role of inpatient treatment.

Continuing education credits for the completion of this module are available to physicians and nurse practitioners.

This is one of a series of online training modules focusing on pharmacology. It is anticipated that additional modules will become available in the future. Current titles include:

• Treatment-Resistant and Late-Life Depression: An Update for Prescribing Clinicians
• Antipsychotic Medications: An Update for Prescribing Clinicians
• Pharmacological Treatment of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Nuts and Bolts
• Management of the Suicidal Patient: Guidance for Prescribing Clinicians
• Pharmacological Treatment of Bipolar Depression
• Pharmacological Management of Eating Disorders: An Update of Prescribing Clinicians

To access this module:

• Log into the Learning Community using your username and password at: https://rfmh.csod.com/client/rfmh/default.aspx
• Click on "Browse for training"
• Click on "Psychopharmacology Trainings for Prescribing Clinicians"
• Click on "Medications to Treat Opioid Use Disorder: Guidance for Prescribing Clinicians"
• Click on "Launch"