NCAD presenters to offer front-line view of prescription drug crisis

 This year’s National Conference on Addiction Disorders (NCAD) will tap into resources from its Florida location and elsewhere to explore numerous facets of the effort to combat prescription drug abuse in the challenging domain of pain management.

Leaders from Florida’s Hanley Center and BayCare Behavioral Health will be among the experts who will share solutions on a subject that has left providers, policy-makers and patients often grasping for reasonable answers. The conference (www.ncad12.com), sponsored by the publishers of Addiction Professional and Behavioral Healthcare magazines, will take place Sept. 28-Oct. 2 in Orlando; early-bird registration rates are in effect until Aug. 15.

Barbara Krantz, Hanley Center’s director of medical research, will present case studies on effective treatment of prescription drug abuse and will discuss non-addictive treatment alternatives for chronic pain patients (Oct. 1). Leaders of BayCare Behavioral Health will make the case that addiction treatment provider agencies can become an integral part of their community’s effort to combat prescription drug misuse. They will cite examples of environmental strategies their agency has employed to combat prescription drug abuse in two Florida counties that experienced spiraling rates of oxycodone-related deaths as well as drug exposure in newborns (Sept. 29).

In other related presentations at this year’s conference:

·        CRC Health Group’s clinical quality management director will address strategies for overcoming patient resistance when a treatment regimen is changed in favor of a safer option (Sept. 29).

·        The CEO of Ascend Recovery in Utah will look specifically at the young adult opiate addict population and its biological and clinical needs (Sept. 30).

·        The director of the pain and chemical dependency program at the University of Pennsylvania’s medical school will give an overview of pharmacological and psychosocial interventions for pain management (Oct. 1).

·        The trend for states to establish prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) will be explored, with a look at how North Dakota treatment professionals have benefited from access to more detailed patient data (Oct. 2).