Topic Four - how good are pharmacotherapies?
1. When you go to the What is Treatment page...
When you visited this page from Topic One you were looking at the role of pharmacotherapies at different points in recovery. You might want to refresh your memory.
Go to the prescribing interventions and be sure you have a good understanding of these main categories.
2. You will find pages focussed on alcohol, opioids, stimulants and cannabis.
Read each of the treatment research evidence pages. The evidence for effectiveness is uneven, pretty much lacking for stimulants and cannabis, but there are some useful summaries of key findings for pharmacotherapies…
Alcohol
Opioids
Stimulants
Cannabis
3. When you go to the Alcohol Treatment - relapse prevention medication page…
Read the story behind the medications and note how they each have different indications for use.
Read the ‘How to do it’ sections and see how motivational dialogue is used. Notice the large psychological component to prescribing for relapse prevention.
4. Write down your thoughts on…
What are the three most important things for you to take away from this task that will guide your practice? What do you see as the value of pharmacotherapies?
