What Does It Treat? This medication is used to help manage moderate to severe opioid use disorder. It is also used to provide relief from moderate to severe pain.

Naloxone is used to reverse opioid overdose in emergency situations.

While psychosocial interventions are not an effective treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD) alone, smaller studies have found cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to be a useful adjunct for patients already on medications for OUD (Barry DT et al, Drug Alcohol Depend 2019;194:460–467). Here are some strategies to integrate a CBT framework into your work with patients with OUD.

Harm reduction refers to a set of strategies aimed at decreasing the negative effects of drug use and other potentially harmful behaviors. As a treatment approach, harm reduction accepts that substance use is an inevitable aspect of our society. Therefore, the goal of harm reduction is to improve patient health rather than focus on full abstinence.

While you may not be treating most medical complications of opioid use disorder, any comprehensive assessment of these patients should include a screening for the most common medical complications.

Use this sheet to write out specific situations that might put you at risk of using opioids and what to do about each one. Filling out the sheet with your provider can be a great way of collaborating on a recovery plan. Once you finish, print out a hard copy so it is always accessible, and keep it up to date.

This template can be downloaded and adapted for your charting, or you can use it as a guide to remind you of important topics to cover during the initial interview

The Subjective Opiate Withdrawal Scale (SOWS) is a scale that can be used to define the severity of opioid withdrawal symptoms at home without the involvement of a health care provider. This scale can be used at home when starting buprenorphine. Once you start experiencing withdrawal, score your symptoms every few hours—you should be ready for your first buprenorphine dose once your total score adds up to 10 or higher.

Clinical Presentation and Diagnosis Neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome (NOWS), sometimes used interchangeably with the term neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), results from prenatal opioid exposure. Withdrawal symptoms typically surface anywhere from 72 hours to seven days post-birth, and though typically not fatal, NOWS is distressing and can lead to prolonged hospitalization of both the infant and the mother. NOWS severity is measured by the Finnegan Neonatal Abstinence Scoring System.

Who Is Likely to Experience Withdrawal Symptoms? ⦁ Risk group: Anyone consistently taking opioids for ≥2 weeks. ⦁ Predictors of severe withdrawal: Daily use, high dosage, and use of short-acting opioids.