Prescription Opioid Misuse, Heroin Use, and Medications to Treat Opioid Addiction (2 credit hours)

Program Summary:  This course explores prescription opioid misuse, heroin use, maintenance medications, and treatment.  Historical trends have shifted since the 1960’s with a changing demographic of opioid users and increasing prescription opioid misuse. From 1991-2011, US opioid prescriptions nearly tripled.  Methadone, buprenorphine, and naltrexone are effective treatments but highly underutilized.  Access to the opioid antagonist, Naloxone, which can reverse an opioid overdose, is increasing.

This course is recommended for social workers, counselors, and therapists and is appropriate for beginning and intermediate levels of practice.  

“Book  Open the Course Reading Here.

Course Reading:  

Prescription Opioids and Heroin/ National Institute on Drug Abuse

Medication to Treat Opioid Addiction/ National Institute on Drug Abuse

Drug Facts Prescription Opioids/ National Institute on Drug Abuse

Drug Facts Heroin/ National Institute on Drug Abuse

Course Objectives:  To enhance professional practice, values, skills, and knowledge by identifying key issues related to prescription opioid misuse, heroin use, and maintenance medications, and treatment.

Learning Objectives:  Describe shifting trends in opioid use since the 1960s.  Describe how medications to treat opioid addiction work.  Compare methadone, buprenorphine, naltrexone, and naloxone.  Describe diversion risk for opioid addiction treatment.

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1: For questions 1-6, please refer to Prescription Opioids and Heroin.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention counted 10,574 heroin overdose deaths in 2014, which represents more than a _____________  increase of the heroin death rate from 2002 to 2014.
 
 
 
 
2: There has been a shift from historical trends.  Of those who began abusing opioids in the 2000s, 75% reported that their first opioid was
 
 
3: The epidemic of prescription opioid abuse has been associated with a shifting of the demographic of opioid users toward a population that is
 
 
4: According to a recent study of heroin users in the Chicago metropolitan area, which of the following 3 paths was the most common path  to heroin addiction?
 
 
 
5: From 1991 to 2011, there was a near tripling of
 
 
 
 
6: Which is associated with low cost and  high availability?
 
 
7: For questions 7-21, please refer to Medications to Treat Opioid Addiction.  Nearly ____________ Americans died of a heroin overdose in 2015.
 
 
 
 
8: Which of the following drugs can only be dispensed through specialized opioid treatment programs?
 
 
 
9: Naltrexone, an opioid antagonist, works by
 
 
 
 
10: To be effective, buprenorphine must be given at a sufficiently high dose- generally ____________ per day or more.
 
 
 
 
11: Which medication requires full detoxification before initiating treatment?
 
 
 
12: Which of the following explains the reason why people with opioid use disorder do not experience  euphoric effects from therapeutic doses of buprenorphine or methadone, while people without opioid use disorder do?
 
 
 
 
13: Which of the following activates opioid receptors the most fully and quickly?
 
 
 
 
14: Which is an opioid receptor antagonist and prevents receptor activation?
 
 
 
 
15: Methadone diversion is primarily associated with methadone prescribed for the treatment of
 
 
16: Treatment with methadone or buprenorphine is associated with _________ injection drug use risk behaviors.
 
 
17: In national surveys, utilization of methadone, buprenorphine, and naltrexone is _________________ in criminal justice settings, including drug courts, jails, and prisons.
 
 
18: TRICARE coverage for opioid agonist medications was __________________ in 2016.
 
 
19: Recent evidence suggests that ____________ may be a better treatment option to lessen the negative effects of opioid dependence on the fetus for pregnant women with opioid use disorder .
 
 
20: Of the $78 billion dollars of the total costs of prescription opioid use disorders and overdoses in the US in 2013, what percentage of that amount was spent on treatment?
 
 
 
 
21: Overdose education and naloxone distribution has been shown to increase
 
 
22: For questions 22-25, please refer to Prescription Opioids.  All of the following are examples of common prescription opioids except:
 
 
 
 
23: Which of the following describes a condition that results when too little oxygen reaches the brain?
 
 
 
 
24: Which of the following can improve many of the adverse outcomes associated with untreated opioid addiction during pregnancy?
 
 
 
 
25: People addicted to an opioid medication who stop using the drug can have severe withdrawal symptoms that begin as early as __________ after the drug was last taken.
 
 
 
26: For questions 26-28, please refer to Heroin.  Which of the following describes the practice called speedballing?
 
 
 
 
27: Heroin enters the brain
 
 
28: People who use heroin report feeling a
 
 

In order to purchase or take this course, you will need to log in. If you do not have an account, you will need to register for a free account.

After you log in, a link will appear here that will allow you to purchase this course.

G.M. Rydberg-Cox, MSW, LSCSW is the Continuing Education Director at Free State Social Work and responsible for the development of this course.  She received her Masters of Social Work in 1996 from the Jane Addams School of Social Work at the University of Illinois-Chicago and she has over 20 years of experience.  She has lived and worked as a social worker in Chicago, Boston, and Kansas City. She has practiced for many years in the area of hospital/medical social work.  The reading materials for this course were developed by another organization.


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