The Addiction Psychiatry Fellowship Seminar 

This seminar takes place weekly and is in tutorial style. The seminar covers core topics in addiction psychiatry specified in a curriculum outlined by the American Psychiatric Association Textbook of Substance Abuse Treatment (Galanter M, Kleber HD, Eds. APPI Press, Inc., 2008, 4th Edition). Each fellow is provided with this textbook and asked to prepare the chapters from the text assigned to the weekly seminars.  Seminar leaders also assign additional readings as appropriate to their topics. Faculty conducting the seminars include leading clinicians, educators, and researchers across Harvard Medical School’s teaching hospitals as well as faculty from other institutions such as Boston University and Brandeis University.

Core topics in this seminar include:
Epidemiology of substance use disorders; Findings from neuroimaging; Neuropharmacology of addiction; Psychosocial treatment modalities such as psychodymanic psychotherapy , cognitive behavioral therapy, motivational interviewing, relapse prevention, self-help such as Alcoholics Anonymous alcohol; Pharmacotherapy of substance use disorders such as suboxone treatment of opioid use disorders; methadone maintenance treatment; pharmacotherapy of detoxification; pharmacotherapy of alcohol use disorders; Specific substances of abuse such as alcohol and other CNS depressants; amphetamines, methamphetamine, and cocaine; opioids and narcotic analgesics; prescription drug abuse; hallucinogens; cannabis; club drugs; nicotine; Treatment of substance use and co-occurring disorders; substance abuse in special populations such as adolescents, women, geriatric; Treatment of substance abuse and chronic pain; Cross-cultural addiction psychiatry; Research design; State regulations and confidentiality; Screening for drug and alcohol use disorders; Professionals with addictions; Gambling as a co-occurring behavioral problem; HIV, Hepatitis C and Substance Use Disorders; The use of urine drug screening.