Addiction Medicine Made Easy | Fighting back against addiction

Have you ever taken care of a patient with a substance use disorder and wondered "what made you think THAT was a good idea??!?!". In Episode 8 - we go through the neurobiology of how substance use affects the brain and how disordered brain function in patients with substance use disorder leads to erratic behavior and an inability to weigh the risks and benefits when making decisions abou...

Dr. Grover reviews 2 papers on carisoprodol - looking at abuse of, dependence on, and withdrawal from carisoprodol. From Brave New World to treating carisoprodol dependence with a taper, this episode is a deep dive into the sparse literature on the topic of carisoprodol - aka Soma. 

If you've ever wondered how we can prevent our youth from developing substance use disorders, Iceland already figured this out in the 1990s. Iceland dropped alcohol use in teens by 90% between 1998 and 2016. How did they do it? We review a magazine article that covers this incredibly effective effort in Iceland to reduce substance use in teens, and how Iceland accomplished it. 

Do you know how to determine if an alcohol use disorder is mild, moderate, or severe? Does your patient who is using cocaine have a mild cocaine use disorder, a moderate cocaine use disorder, or a severe cocaine use disorder? In this episode we walk through the DSM-V criteria for substance use disorder and how to assess if your patient has a mild, moderate, or severe substance use disorder

How familiar are you with pharmacotherapy for smoking cessation? Turns out medications for smoking cessation are relatively simple, and easy to prescribe. Dr. Grover gives a concise review of medications for smoking cessation. Considering that cigarette smoking causes about 1 out of every 5 deaths in America - we as acute care providers can make a big different for our patients by helping them qui...

Have you ever sat down with someone after an opioid overdose? Ever wondered what people are worried about after they have an overdose and end up in an Emergency Department? In this episode, we review this paper from Academic Emergency Medicine in 2021: "A qualitative study of Emergency Department patients who survived an opioid overdose: Perspectives on treatment and unmet needs." The au...

Benzodiazepines are often mis-managed by physicians. Benzodiazepine dependence develops within weeks of use, with 50% of people using them for > 1 month becoming dependent. 5% of patients with new benzodiazepine prescriptions will continue to use it after 8 years. So what do we do with these patients in the acute care setting when they want to taper off of them? Dr. Grover provides an evidence-...

How much do you know about Cannabis Withdrawal Syndrome? I didn't know anything until I researched and recorded this episode. Turns out it's way more common than you think, and may be the cause of your patients' worsening anxiety and depression. This episode is an evidence based review of Cannabis Withdrawal Syndrome: What is it? How common is it? And what symptoms does it present w...

Taking on a huge topic in Emergency Medicine and Acute Care - Buprenorphine! A medication that saves lives but can be very intimidating when you first start using it due to how it works in the body. Dr. Casey Grover breaks down the basics so that you can be ready to use buprenorphine successfully on your next shift. 

A review of the paper by Evan Wood et al in JAMA 2018: "Will this hospitalized patient develop severe alcohol withdrawal" We discuss a brief overview of alcohol withdrawal, and what a JAMA Rational Clinical Examination Systematic Review says on which hospitalized patients will develop severe alcohol withdrawal. We also talk about trying to predict which patients who present to the hospit...

How big of a problem is substance use? Is substance use a problem for patients in the acute care setting? Is treatment for substance use effective in the acute care setting, particularly the Emergency Department? Dr. Casey Grover provides an evidence-based overview of why we should - as healthcare providers - all care about substance use disorders. 

An introduction to the Addiction in Emergency Medicine and Acute Care Podcast Who am I? Why does this topic matter? How is this podcast going to work?