Course Description

This course explores how the crucial distinction between dependence and addiction shapes clinical practice and policy in the context of the opioid epidemic. Many patients who rely on opioid medications for pain management become physically dependent over time but do not become “addicted”. Misunderstanding this difference can lead to stigma, inappropriate care, and harmful policy decisions.

Through presentations from internationally recognized experts, you will examine the science of dependence and addiction, how each develops, and what these differences mean for prescribing, monitoring, and treating patients who use opioids for pain or other medical purposes vs those who are using opioids recreationally. The course highlights the experiences of populations who are commonly affected by one or both, including veterans, former athletes, accident victims, people with disabilities, and cancer patients.

You will also learn strategies drawn from medical and prevention sciences to support both effective pain treatment and responsible opioid use. These include:
  • Educating the public, lawmakers, industry leaders, and community organizations about the difference between dependence and addiction and why it matters for policy.
  • Reducing stigma related to appropriate medical use of opioids so that patients can access needed treatments.
  • Using routine assessment to distinguish patients with addiction from those who are strictly dependent and tailoring care accordingly.
  • Scaling evidence-based individual, family, school, and community-level prevention strategies that reduce conditions that contribute to addiction.

Although prescribing and monitoring are primarily the responsibility of physicians, this course emphasizes the essential role of clinical psychologists and other behavioral health professionals in supporting patients with pain, substance use concerns, and their families. Learners will leave with a clearer framework for talking with patients, coordinating with prescribers, and advocating for policies that protect both public health and appropriate pain care.

*There are no conflicts of interest to report.

Learning Objectives

  • Describe the neurobiological, physiological, psychological, behavioral, and social differences between substance addiction and dependence on opioids and other substances used for pain reduction or palliative care.

  • Identify the different clinical approaches for patients with addiction versus dependence.

  • Explain the critical importance of involving the whole family unit in interventions provided for addiction.

  • Identify evidence-based prevention strategies designed to disrupt the pathway to substance addiction before it develops, as well as prevent escalation, relapse, and recovery failure.

  • Utilize evidence-based practices for diagnosing substance use disorder in adolescents and adults.

  • Describe treatment modalities utilized for treating addiction as a chronic disease.

  • Discuss the health inequities associated with substance use disorder.

Course Curriculum

4 Continuing Education Credit

  1. Course Introduction

  2. Module One: Addiction vs Dependence: Neurobiological Foundations for Clinical Practice

  3. Module Two: Understanding Addiction in Adults

  4. Module Three: Understanding Addiction in Adolescence & Emerging Adulthood

  5. Module Four: Lived Experience Speaker

  6. Conclusion

Course Highlights

  • 4 Continuing Education Credits
  • 4 Module Course
  • $108.00 to $120.00

Instructor(s)

President Diana Fishbein, Ph.D.

Diana “Denni” Fishbein, PhD, is a Nova Scholar at the Nova Institute for Health, Founder and President of the National Prevention Science Coalition to Improve Lives (NPSC), Senior Scientist at the FPG Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Part-Time Research Faculty at Penn State University. She has conducted research in substance use and addiction for 40 years and, through NPSC, advises federal and state substance use prevention policies.

Associate Professor Michael Baca-Atlas, MD

Dr. Baca-Atlas is originally from Baltimore, MD. He completed his undergraduate work at the University of Maryland, College Park, and medical school at the University of Maryland in Baltimore. He completed his Family Medicine residency at UNC and an Addiction Medicine fellowship at UNC in the Department of Psychiatry. He serves as the Medical Director for UNC REACH Enhanced Primary Care and Associate Medical Director for the Tobacco Treatment Program.

Medical Doctor Jessica Calihan

Dr. Jessie Calihan (she/her) is an adolescent and addiction medicine physician and health services researcher focused on preventing substance use and related harms in youth. She completed an Internal Medicine-Pediatrics residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital prior to fellowships in Adolescent Medicine and Addiction Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital. Clinically, she provides primary and specialty care to adolescents and young adults, particularly those with problematic substance use. Her research centers on the family-focused prevention and treatment of youth substance use.

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