This is the second in a series of slides put together by Drug Science and the SSA. The series is designed to provide useful resources for people who work in medical education. They do, however, also contain important information about addiction that can be used individually or other educational settings. If they are useful for you, then please use them.

Download Addiction in Psychiatry slides

Drug use is particularly high among people with mental health conditions. Despite this, many healthcare workers are not trained to recognise the signs of drug use and can be unaware of how to treat this distinctive patient group appropriately.

There are several more slide sets to come, including assessment and screening, opioid substitution treatment and the pharmacology of addiction. We will let you know they become available.

The Society for the Study of Addiction (SSA) is very happy to have worked with Drug Science in 2020 and 2021 to develop and update this slide series for use in medical education. Medical practitioners are often the first people to come into contact with people who use substances, and it is vital that those practitioners are able to provide a positive response and to deliver evidence-based interventions from that first moment and all the way through to the end of that person’s care.

These slides are primarily for use in medical education settings but have been carefully designed to ensure that they are accessible for a wide range of people. They will therefore provide a rapid overview for medical students and other healthcare professionals. They are free to use; the aim of both organisations is to optimise dissemination of research into practice, so if these slides are of use to you, please use them. If you have any queries, please contact Drug Science or SSA through their websites and we will be glad to answer your questions.

The project has used the extensive knowledge and expertise of Drug Science and the SSA to develop these up-to-date, evidence based and accessible resources. We hope you enjoy them.

The opinions expressed in this post reflect the views of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA.

The SSA does not endorse or guarantee the accuracy of the information in external sources or links and accepts no responsibility or liability for any consequences arising from the use of such information.