Addiction Care throughout the Lifespan

The Canadian Society of Addiction Medicine Conference is happening at the Hyatt Regency in Vancouver. It began yesterday with examinations for the International Society of Addiction Medicine.  I first addressed addiction as a general practitioner then specialized in it as part of my training in psychiatry where I had the most unglamorous job of the profession, working in the Winnipeg Detox Centre.  Vomit and shakes! But what a rush to bring the dying back to life especially those who went onto AA and NA to gain life time sobriety and literally a new real and meaningful life after years of carnage and waste.

I remember my American Society of Addiction Medicine Examinations over a decade ago, then joining the Canadian Society of Addiction Medicine, and International Society of Addiction Medicine.  It was a joy to meet Dr. Nady el Guebaly again.  So many of the doctors in these associations are the kinds of clinicians and researchers I truly admire. Addiction Medicine isn't a Hollywood speciality. It's trench medicine at its worst and uphill slogging at it's best. 

Today's topics include "Are Babies Born Addicted", "Pregnancy and Post Partum Addiction.", "How we fail our most vulnerable - can the wrong environment foster more addiction?" - "Marijuana and Youth", "Nicotine Addiction," "Club Drugs - What exactly is in that party mix.."

Tomorrow the session opens with "Was up with out addicted youth."  "ADHD and Substance Use Disorder - What's the deal?" "Is SBIRT for squirts? Youth, Pills and Pot in your primary care office." "The interface between addiction and occupational medicine."  "Addiction Medicine - coming of Age?"  "Who is Buprenorphine right for? "When Opiods fail? Management of the Chronic Pain and Opiod Misuse Patient" "Prescribing High Dose Opioids"  "Addiction in the Aboriginal Peoples - What went wrong and what are we doing about it"  'Behavavioural Addiction in People Living with Disability: Disordered Gambling and Health Functioning"  "Hepatitis C and Addiction".  Evidence Based medical treatment of opiod dependence in Canada and the United States.   "Palliative Care in the Addicted Population".  "Management of Alcohol Use Disorders in the elderly" " What the future holds"  Changes in prescribing and dispensing methadone in BC.

 

Well now to get back to the individual course. I'm really excited about the learning available here and the illustrious faculty of mostly UBC presenting today. UBC has it's own Addiction Psychiatry Department.