Controlled Substance Prescribing and Drug Diversion Prevention

Course overview

Substance use disorders are a significant public health problem with a wide range of adverse effects on individuals' mental, physical, and social well-being. Mental health problems co-occurring with substance use disorders include depressive, anxiety, and psychotic disorders, as well as organic brain syndromes (American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2013). Substance use disorders share many of the same features but differ in pharmacology and associated behaviors that account for the unique effects of each substance (Boland & Verduin, 2022). Alcohol, opioids, central nervous stimulants, cannabinoids, and tobacco describe the phenomenon associated with substance disorders. The hallmark of substance use disorders includes cognitive, behavioral, and physiological symptoms of intoxication, withdrawal, and dependence (APA, 2013). Diagnosis is based on pathological patterns of substance use, but all substances activate the same brain reward pathway via dopaminergic neurotransmission (Paxos & Teter, 2019). Emerging techniques are assisting in the diagnosis of substance use and other mental health disorders. Brain stimulation, transcranial magnetic stimulation, and functional magnetic resonance imaging are utilized in both diagnosis and relapse in substance use disorders. Through these promising diagnostic imaging tests. Addiction is now understood as a chronic, treatable brain disorder from which recovery is possible according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse ([NIDA], 2022).