AMA highlights role of patient shame in opioid disorders

(HealthDay)—Supported by the American Medical Association (AMA), the Providers' Clinical Support System for Opioid Therapies (PCSS-O) has released a collection of resources from a national training and mentoring project developed by physicians to promote the role of self-education and help curb the opioid epidemic.

Two webinars were recently added to the PCSS-O collection. The Role of Shame in Opioid Use Disorders addresses how patients with opioid use disorders come to feel shame and guilt, and how physicians can identify these feelings through nonverbal indicators and body language. The second webinar, Addiction Prediction: Errors from the Bedside Hurt Patients With Pain, highlights findings from a study of home postoperative pain management that assessed the difference between patient pill-use logs and actual pill counts.

In addition, two modules were recently added: Concurrent Management of Chronic Pain and Addiction, which presents treatment strategies to meet the unique needs of patients, and A Review of Considerations in the Assessment and Treatment of Pain and Risk for Opioid Misuse, a module addressing how to resolve the need for pain treatment while minimizing opioid misuse.

"Physicians understand their vital role in ending this crisis as both a professional and ethical obligation," Patrice A. Harris, M.D., chair of the AMA Task Force to Reduce Opioid Abuse, wrote in an article earlier this year. "If physicians do not know where to find education that applies to their practice and specialty, many organizations are available to help."

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