Addiction Medicine: Beyond the Abstract

In this episode, Dr. Jasmine Barnes and Dr. Margaret Lowenstein sit down to discuss their new article Characterization of a Young Adult Sample Accessing Buprenorphine Via Telehealth in Philadelphia, PA featured in the January/February 2026 issue of the Journal of Addiction Medicine. Article Link: Characterization of a Young Adult Sample Accessing Buprenorphine Via Telehealth in Philadelphia, PA

In this episode of Beyond The Abstract, Dr. Matthew Sloan sits down to discuss findings from his recent article Symptom-Triggered Alcohol Withdrawal Management Delivered Over Telemedicine featured in the November/December issue of the Journal of Addiction Medicine. Join us as Dr. Sloan shares insights into his study investigating the feasibility of delivering symptom-triggered alcohol withdrawal management over telemedicine. Dr. Matthew Sloan is a clinician scientist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He specializes in the treatment of substance use disorders and their psychiatric comorbidities. He completed medical school and psychiatry residency at McGill University followed by a postdoctoral fellowship in human psychopharmacology at the National Institutes of Health and an addiction psychiatry fellowship at Yale University. Dr. Sloan's primary research interests are developing innovative new treatments for substance use disorders and exploring determinants of psychopharmacological response to drugs of misuse. He has obtained competitive research funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Health Canada, and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health Discovery Fund and has received scientific prizes from the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Article Link: Symptom-Triggered Alcohol Withdrawal Management Delivered Over Telemedicine

In this episode, Dr. Blythe Bynum joins the show to discuss her new article titled Navigating Choices: Pregnancy Options Counseling Experiences in Individuals With Opioid Use Disorder, featured in the November/December issue of the Journal of Addiction Medicine. Dr. Blythe Bynum is an assistant professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is a board certified OBGYN with fellowship training in Complex Family Planning. Article Link: Navigating Choices: Pregnancy Options Counseling Experiences in Individuals With Opioid Use Disorder

In this episode, Dr. Vinit Patel sits down to discuss his new article Non-medical Mephentermine Use: A Systematic Review of Literature, as well as what exactly mephentermine is, why and how it is currently being used in non-medical settings specifically in India and South Asia, and some of the contributing factors associated with geographic disparities in non-medical mephentermine use. Article Link: Non-medical Mephentermine Use: A Systematic Review of Literature

Dr. Pouya Azar stops by the show to talk about his recent article Transition to Extended-release Buprenorphine Injectable Within Seven Days for Opioid Use Disorder Treatment: A Scoping Narrative. He discusses the potential benefits of transitioning patients with opioid use disorder from traditional to extended-release or long-acting buprenorphine within 7 days or 24 hours, respectively, of treatment, as well as challenges and future questions that arose from his narrative review. Pouya Azar, MD, FRCPC, DABAM, is a clinician-scientist in addiction psychiatry and pain medicine based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He serves as co-medical manager of the Complex Pain and Addiction Service (CPAS) at Vancouver Coastal Health, a consult service providing management of pain, mental health disorders, and substance use disorders across Vancouver General Hospital, the University of British Columbia (UBC) Hospital, and GF Strong Rehabilitation Centre. He is also an assistant professor (tenure-track) in the UBC Department of Psychiatry, research scientist co-lead of the Substance Use Disorder Clinical Research Unit at the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, and a physician at the Vancouver General Hospital Transitional Pain Clinic. Dr. Azar’s clinical and translational research focuses on developing novel opioid agonist treatment initiation and withdrawal management protocols, medical devices, digital health apps, and prevention programs to improve patient outcomes. - Article Link: Transition to Extended-release Buprenorphine Injectable Within Seven Days for Opioid Use Disorder Treatment: A Scoping Narrative

Dr. Emily Pasman stops by the show to talk about her recent article Nonabstinence Among US Adults in Recovery From an Alcohol or Other Drug Problem. She discusses the findings from her study as well as the potential limitations of using a solely abstinence-focused treatment and recovery model for addiction care. Emily Pasman is a licensed social worker and postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Michigan Center for the Study of Drugs, Alcohol, Smoking, and Health. Her research aims to improve health equity for people who use drugs by expanding harm reduction interventions; supporting affected family members; and addressing disparities in service access, uptake, and outcomes. Grounded in her practice background in peer-delivered services, she uses participatory methods to engage people with lived and living experience in all aspects of the research process. - Article Link: Nonabstinence Among US Adults in Recovery From an Alcohol or Other Drug Problem

In this episode, Regina LaBelle stops by to talk about her recent article featured in the Journal of Addiction Medicine titled, The First 100 Days: The Trump Administration and Changes to Addiction Policy. In this episode, Regina discusses structural, budgetary and personnel, and data collection changes that have occurred in the last 100 days and the potential impact on addiction policy. Regina LaBelle is the director of the Center on Addiction Policy at the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University Law Center. She is also a member of the faculty at Georgetown University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, where she directs the Master of Science in Addiction Policy and Practice program, a program she founded in 2021. Regina has a history of public service, including in the Biden and Obama Administrations in the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy where she was appointed acting director in the first year of the Biden Administration. Under President Obama, Regina served as chief of staff at ONDCP where she managed the agency's response to the overdose epidemic and the implementation of the National Drug Control Strategy. She also serves on the National Advisory Council on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health. - Article Link: The First 100 Days: The Trump Administration and Changes to Addiction Policy

In this episode, Dr. Charles Schauberger discusses the difficulties clinicians face when identifying and treating inhalant use in pregnant patients, and the findings from his recent article Systematic Review of Obstetric and Child Outcomes of Prenatal Exposure to Inhalants in the Context of a Use Disorder. Dr. Charles Schauberger lives and practices in La Crosse, Wisconsin. He is board-certified in both Obstetrics and Addiction Medicine, and has developed a specialized pregnancy addiction clinic that champions a patient-centered approach to addiction care for pregnant women. While he is mostly retired from obstetrics, he continues to provide addiction care and continues his interest in performing research studies to advance our knowledge of treatment for substances in pregnancy. - Article Link: Systematic Review of Obstetric and Child Outcomes of Prenatal Exposure to Inhalants in the Context of a Use Disorder

In this episode, Dr. Ryan Alexander joins the show to discuss findings from his new study Withdrawal Signs and Symptoms Among Patients Positive for Fentanyl With and Without Xylazine. Dr. Ryan Alexander is an addiction medicine specialist and is currently the medical director for substance use services at McNabb Center in Knoxville, TN and is an assistant professor at the University of Tennessee Graduate School of Medicine. He completed medical school at the DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine in East Tennessee, his residency in preventive medicine and public health at Griffin Hospital/Yale School of Medicine, and a fellowship in addiction medicine at Yale University School of Medicine. In addition, he completed a Masters of Public Health at Yale School of Public Health. In addition to treating patients, Dr. Alexander conducts clinical research and has published multiple articles related to addiction medicine. He also regularly teaches medical students, residents, and other medical professionals about treating substance use disorders, reducing community stigma toward individuals with substance use disorders, and expanding access to medication treatments. - Article link: Withdrawal Signs and Symptoms Among Patients Positive for Fentanyl With and Without Xylazine

In this episode, Dr. Christine Neeb sits down to discuss integrated treatment programs and how this model could potentially be adapted to other populations with SUD. Dr. Neeb is a Visiting Associate Professor and the Director of Integrated Primary Care and Addiction in the Division of General Internal Medicine at the University of Colorado Anschutz. She is board certified in Family Medicine and Addiction Medicine and focuses on novel strategies to expand access to treatment of substance use disorders, including methadone maintenance therapy, in underserved populations and in the primary care setting. - Integration of a Community Opioid Treatment Program Into a Federally Qualified Health Center

In this episode of Beyond The Abstract, Dr. Joji Suzuki stops by the show to discuss his recent co-authored review on GLP-1 agonists and their potential role in addiction treatment. Dr. Suzuki is the founding Director of the Division of Addiction Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry, Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), and an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School (HMS). He is board certified in both Addiction Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine, and has continued to maintain his clinical role as an inpatient addiction consultant at BWH. He has received NIH funding continuously since 2017, having completed a K23 Career Development Award to receive training in conducting clinical trials with an emphasis on research to improve the care of hospitalized patients. He is now a principal investigator on multiple NIH funded trials to evaluate novel pharmacologic and psychosocial treatments for substance use disorders. The Efficacy of GLP-1 Agonists in Treating Substance Use Disorder in Patients: A Scoping Review Journal of Addiction Medicine 18(5):p 488-498, 9/10 2024 Sept-Oct 2024

Podcast host Shawn McNiel, MD, is joined by Noa Krawczyk, PhD, an assistant professor in the Department of Population Health at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, and an author of Initiatives to Support the Transition of Patients With Substance Use Disorders From Acute Care to Community-based Services Among a National Sample of Nonprofit Hospitals. Dr. Krawczyk discusses the gap in transition of acute care to community care services among most US hospitals, efforts to increase acute care interventions, and how clinicians providing SUD treatment can help hospitals identify and implement best practices to support continuity of care. Follow Dr. Krawczyk on Twitter @noakrawczyk Article, Authors, and Links: Initiatives to Support the Transition of Patients With Substance Use Disorders From Acute Care to Community-based Services Among a National Sample of Nonprofit Hospitals. Krawczyk, Noa PhD; Rivera, Bianca D. MPH; Chang, Ji E. PhD; Lindenfeld, Zoe MPH; Franz, Berkeley PhD Journal of Addiction Medicine 18(2):p 115-121, 3/4 2024