Dr. Johnson tells us all about Child Protective Services and how they work with pregnant patients who use substances. In this interview, she reviews the role of medical and mental health providers in the care of pregnant patients with addictive disorders and their legal obligations. She also provides tips for discussing these sensitive matters with your patients.

Many of your patients with substance use disorders will become involved with the legal system over the course of their work with you, and one of the most common avenues is through the drug
court system. Here, we provide the basics of how drug courts function and review how best to work with these courts when they request information.

Methadone treatment for OUD typically comes with a high level of supervision whereas buprenorphine is often flexibly dosed and taken at home. Here researchers wanted to know how patients of a closely supervised methadone clinic compared with those taking buprenorphine prescribed in an office setting. The findings might surprise you.

The process of starting a patient on buprenorphine, called an induction, can be a bit tricky and puts a patient at risk of a precipitated opioid withdrawal. In this article, we discuss the three most common buprenorphine induction approaches, review the pros and cons of each, and include straightforward guidance that will help you perform a successful buprenorphine induction for your patients.

Nootropics are a broad class of medications encompassing many different mechanisms of action that are marketed as cognitive enhancers. Not only do most nootropics lack evidence of efficacy, but some can have dangerous side effects and addictive potential. Here, we discuss some of the most concerning nootropics being widely used today.