Addiction Education

What is Addiction? The neuroscience…

Alcohol & Benzodiazepine Abuse

Alcohol abuse can be the most physical damaging on the body with long term use. Detoxing from alcohol or benzos almost always requires inpatient treatment and the severity of the detox can sometimes lead to an ICU admission if care is not initiated early and medication intervention is ongoing. Benzodiazepines such as Xanax, Klonopin and Ativan have a similar affect like alcohol when detoxing. The tool most widely used to assess a patient detoxing from alcohol or benzos is the CIWA. Generally, a score over 12 should have medication intervention and any score over 16-20 that does not respond well and quickly to medication intervention should be evaluated for ICU admission. Always assess the WHOLE patient, not just scores.

PDF CIWA: CIWA-Ar
CIWA Videos
- https://youtu.be/JAes4KD-lJc
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJncOfVqANg
2-Minute Neuroscience: Benzodiazepines
From PubMed:
- Evaluation of the appropriate use of a CIWA-Ar alcohol withdrawal protocol in the general hospital setting
- Treatment of Alcohol Withdrawal Syndrome: Phenobarbital vs CIWA-Ar Protocol

Opiate/Fentanyl Abuse & Detox

Opiates use and overdose statistics continue to show overwhelming rates of increase. Most recent studies show that medication assisted therapy with medications such as methadone and suboxone improve recovery length, decrease relapse and overdose and allow people to return to their "normal" life.

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Neonatal Drug Withdrawal

Pregnant women using drugs place their unborn child at risk for several health issues. In addition to the health concerns, most mothers are afraid to tell their provider of their drug use due to the social stigma and fear of loss of custody of their children. This often leads to decreases in prenatal care and increased high risk pregnancy placing the health of the mother and child at risk for complications and death.

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Cocaine Use

Cocaine has been used for decades in the operating room for surgeries such as nose jobs- this is due to its anesthetic effects. The cocaine used medically comes from poppy plants and its processed by pharmaceutical manufactures for distribution.

Street cocaine is not the same. One use of inhaling cocaine could cause a heart attack. And in 2022 there has been increased reports of overdose from cocaine due to the cocaine being mixed with fentanyl. As cocaine is dangerous on its own, to someone who is only using cocaine, and not opiates-- the smallest amount of fentanyl could cause an overdose because their brain is not used to the opiates.

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Become a Certified Addiction Registered Nurse!

Addiction Nursing is a rewarding nursing specialty. Help yourself stand out among other applicants with a certification. Current pass rates for the CARN exam are about 75%- read more here

Weekly and Biweekly study group services are available to help you succeed with your exam.

Here are the requirements to obtain your CARN:

Here is the website for more information

Hold a current RN license in your state
Have 30 hours of continuing education related to addiction
- Try: https://nursece4less.com/
Work in the addiction field for 2000hrs [about 1yr] within the last 3 years
Study, take and pass the exam! 😊

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If you're an addiction nurse lets discuss all things addiction nurse related. Meets monthly. Send me an email to join us!