Launch Date
03/01/2019
Credit Amount
0.25 Hours
Credit Expires
12/31/2022
Studies have shown that gender plays an important role in pain, pain perception, and opioid use. Women are more likely to gain access to opioids through their medical treatment. Not only are women prescribed opioids more often than men (53% vs. 46%), but this number increases with age. Often there is a lack of attention to underlying causes of opioid use disorder (OUD), particularly past sexual or emotional trauma, which can put women at a significantly higher risk for addiction and relapse. Gender-responsive treatment programs, such as the one led by Dr. Ovson at Lakeview Health in Jacksonville, FL, help women address their substance use in an environment that removes stigma and bias.
It’s important to identify gender-specific needs when addressing pain management and OUD, with open discussion being the key to their resolution. “We rarely think about what the person brings to the drug challenge. When it comes to someone who has experienced sexual trauma, a single dose of an opioid might be enough to make continued use more likely and addiction inevitable; a couple of doses, and they feel such relief and lack of tension that they think they’ve found the lock and key to their mental well-being and are more likely to rely on opioids to treat their psychological, rather than physical, trauma. Therefore, screening for prior substance use and trauma prior to prescribing opioids is essential,” stated ASAM McGovern Lifetime Achievement Award winner, Dr. Mark Gold, in this CME Outfitters Snack on how gender effects a patient’s proclivity to substance abuse disorders and engagement in treatment, as well as the emotional components that are often underlying causes of addiction.
At the end of this CME/CE activity, participants should be able to identify gender-specific treatment needs when addressing substance use disorders.
Supported by an educational grant from Johnson & Johnson.
Physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, nurses, and pharmacists.
It is the policy of CME Outfitters, LLC, to ensure independence, balance, objectivity, and scientific rigor and integrity in all of their CE activities. Faculty must disclose to the participants any relationships with commercial companies whose products or devices may be mentioned in faculty presentations, or with the commercial supporter of this CE activity. CME Outfitters, LLC, has evaluated, identified, and mitigated any potential conflicts of interest through a rigorous content validation procedure, use of evidence-based data/research, and a multidisciplinary peer review process.
Dr. Gold has no disclosures to report.
Dr. Ovson has no disclosures to report.
Disclosures were obtained from the CME Outfitters, LLC staff: No disclosures to report.
Faculty of this CE activity may include discussions of products or devices that are not currently labeled for use by the FDA. The faculty have been informed of their responsibility to disclose to the audience if they will be discussing off-label or investigational uses (any uses not approved by the FDA) of products or devices.
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