Chemical Dependency

After completing this course, you will be able to:

Alcohol: What You Don’t Know Can Harm You

• Describe the consequences of drinking in terms of ability to drive, interactions with medicines, interpersonal problems, alcohol-related birth defects, and long-term health problems.
• List signs and symptoms of alcohol use and intoxication, and withdrawal.

Epidemiology of Alcoholism

• Compile and analyze the information gathered from epidemiology studies of alcoholism.

Screening for Alcoholism

• Distinguish between two types of alcoholism-screening instruments and describe the application and effectiveness of various tests in detecting alcoholism.

Moderate Drinking

• Define moderate drinking
• Explain to the patient risks and benefits of moderate drinking

Alcohol and Women

• Compare and contrast the impact of gender in the prevalence, cause and effects of alcohol abuse.
• Describe how alcohol affects women differently than men physiologically and psychologically.

Are Women More Vulnerable to Alcohol’s Effects?

• Explain why women are more vulnerable to the effects of alcohol.
• Identify the consequences of alcohol use on women in terms of liver damage, brain damage, heart disease, breast cancer, violent victimization and traffic crashes.
• List 3 major risk factors for women’s alcohol use.

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

• List the three criteria that define fetal alcohol syndrome.
• Formulate a recommendation for pregnant women on the use of alcohol during pregnancy.

Children of Alcoholics: Are they Different?

• List the negative consequences in terms of cognitive, emotional and behavioral problems in the children of alcoholics.

Alcohol and Minorities

• Explain the genetic influence of “flushing” on certain minority groups that helps them from becoming alcoholic.

Alcohol and the Workplace

• List 5 factors that contribute to employee drinking in the workplace.
• Describe alcohol-related job performance problems caused by on-the-job drinking and drinking outside of work.
• Articulate strategies to prevent and manage alcohol problems in the workplace.

Alcohol and Tobacco

• Explain the co-occurrence of alcoholism and smoking.
• Outline addictions treatment for smoking alcoholics.

Alcoholism and Co-occurring Disorders

• Identify 5 ways in which alcoholism and other disorders might be related.
• Discuss medical conditions and psychiatric disorders that are comorbid with alcoholism.

Alcohol and Coronary Heart Disease

• Discuss the epidemiologic and clinical evidence between moderate alcoholic consumption and lower risk for CHD.
• Discuss whether the role played by alcohol on lowering the risk for CHD is causal or incidental.

Alcohol and the Liver

• Identify factors that influence vulnerability to alcohol-induced liver damage.
• Explain how alcohol damages the liver
• Discuss the three alcohol-induced liver conditions: fatty liver, alcohol hepatitis, and cirrhosis.
• Describe the damage to the liver as a result of alcoholism, extent of the problem, factors that play a part in causing the damage to the liver, and the treatment.

Alcohol and Cancer

• Explain the association between alcohol consumption and development of certain types of cancer.

Alcohol and AIDS

• Explain the connection between alcohol, HIV infection and AIDS.

Alcohol and Tolerance

• Distinguish between functional and metabolic tolerance.
• Describe different types of functional tolerances and the factors influencing their development.
• Compare and contrast among acute tolerance, environment-dependent tolerance, learned tolerance and environment-independent tolerance.

Alcohol and Cognition

• List the reasons for neuropsychological impairment in alcoholics.
• Describe the effects of alcohol on cognition.

Alcohol and Stress

• Explain the connection between alcohol and stress.
• Answer questions: Does stress influence drinking? Does drinking reduce or induce stress?

Alcohol and Sleep

• Summarize some basic features of normal sleep including sleep structure, onset and arousal.
• Elaborate on the effect of alcohol on sleep in those without alcoholism and in those with alcoholism.
• Make the connection between alcohol and breathing disorders, such as obstructive sleep apnea.

Alcohol and Aging

• Describe the drinking prevalence and patterns among the elderly.
• List the combined effects of alcohol and aging and prescribe the treatment of alcoholism in the elderly.

Drug Awareness Quiz

• Answer some common questions about drugs, drug abuse and associated adverse physical and mental effects.
• Conduct a self-test for cocaine addiction.
• List 38 tell-tale signs of drug abuse.

Drug Use in America

• Describe the trends and prevalence of drug use in America.

Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drugs in the Workplace

• Describe the prevalence of ATOD in the workplace.
• List 6 signs that may indicate substance abuse in the workplace.
• List 3 steps one can take to reduce substance abuse in the workplace.

Sex, Violence and Domestic Violence

• Describe the interconnection between risky sexual behavior, violence and crime and domestic violence and alcohol and other drugs.

Cocaine Abuse and Addiction

• Describe the scope of cocaine use in the United States.
• Explain the mechanism through which cocaine affects deep structures in the brain.
• Indicate the short-term and long-term effects of cocaine use.
• Describe the cardiovascular, respiratory, neurological and gastrointestinal complications of cocaine abuse.
• Describe the pharmacological and behavioral treatments for cocaine abusers.

Heroin Abuse in the United States

• Describe the prevalence and patterns of heroine use in the United States.

Dangerous Drugs

• Describe the pharmacology and use of methamphetamine, marijuana, LSD, MDMA (Ecstasty), PCP, Ketamine, GHB, methylphenidate, steroids, flunitrazepam and inhalants.

Principles of Drug Addiction Treatment

• Enunciate 13 principles of effective drug addiction treatment.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Answer several frequently asked questions about drug addiction treatment and its effectiveness.

Drug Addiction Treatment in the Unites States

• Describe general categories of drug addiction treatment programs and list their characteristics, treatment approach and target population.

Scientifically Based Approach to Drug Addiction Treatment

• List various scientifically based approaches to drug addiction treatment and elaborate on their main components, particularly relapse prevention, supportive-expressive psychotherapy, individualized drug counseling, motivational enhancement therapy, behavioral therapy for adolescents, multidimensional family therapy for adolescents, multisystemic therapy, combined behavioral and nicotine replacement therapy for nicotine addiction, community reinforcement approach plus vouchers, voucher-based reinforcement therapy in methadone treatment, day treatment with abstinence contingencies and vouchers and the matrix model.

Rate and Duration of Drug Activity

• Describe the roles played by the rate and duration of drug activity in drug abuse addiction and treatment.
• Explain how the method of drug administration influences the rate of action.

Treatment Methods for Women

• List the consequences of drug use for women.
• Explain why many drug-using women do not seek treatment.

Lessons from Prevention Research

• Identify “protective factors” and “risk factors” that should be incorporated in drug abuse prevention programs.

Effectiveness of Drug Abuse Treatment

• Describe the application of four common types of drug abuse treatment: outpatient methadone programs, long-term residential programs, outpatient drug-free programs and short-term inpatient programs.

Brief Intervention for Alcohol Problems

• Describe the brief intervention treatment programs for alcohol problems, and its effectiveness for non-alcohol-dependent and alcohol-dependent patients.
• List 9 common elements of brief intervention treatment for alcohol problems.