Navigating at the Intersection of Chronic Pain and Substance Use Disorders
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This course is designed to help PTs effectively manage patients who have both substance use disorders and chronic pain. Both of these problems are complex, nuanced, and both are best addressed by interprofessional patient centered teams. This poses multiple challenges for PTs who often lack the support of well-coordinated teams, who are trying to integrate large amounts of new scientific knowledge, and who are often struggling with time and reimbursement limitations. To fulfill our vision of comprehensive biopsychosocial care, we must draw from literature in all three of these areas. This session attempts to pull together and summarize this literature to help PTs build better skills for the work they do at the intersection of substance use disorders and chronic pain. Specifically, we will discuss Opioid Induced Hyperalgesia and address some commonly held myths about this patient population and their treatment. We will review evidence about the effectiveness of nonpharmacologic care and the neurological basis of substance use disorders, chronic pain, and their common risk factors.
Learning Objectives:
- Understand Opioid Induced Hyperalgesia and how to present that information to patients for improved shared-decision making
- Explain the neurological basis of substance use disorders, chronic pain, and their shared mechanisms
- Outline practical tools PTs can use to assist with non-pharmacological treatment of pain
Sarah Wenger
PT, DPT
Dr. Wenger is an associate clinical professor at Drexel University’s College of Nursing and Health Professions. She received her master of physical therapy degree from Arcadia University in 1997 and her doctor of physical therapy degree from Temple University in 2002. She also is a board-certified clinical specialist in orthopaedic physical therapy. She has published and presented on a range of topics related to her areas of expertise in chronic pain, underserved populations, and clinical reasoning, and she provides pro bono services in a community-based clinic. With an interdisciplinary team, Wenger developed a chronic pain clinical reasoning model and psycho-education program called Power Over Pain.
Bill Hanlon
PT, DPT, MSPT
Dr. Hanlon has for the past 10 years worked at St Joseph Institute in an Interdisciplinary team setting, successfully helping patients who have chronic pain and opiate addiction become opiate free. After working at a rural, underserved primary care center and teaching with the Kellogg Foundation Project, Hanlon taught at St Francis University from 1997 to 2015 as an assistant, then associate, professor of physical therapy. A board-certified clinical specialist in orthopaedic physical therapy, Hanlon also is certified in mechanical diagnosis and therapy of the spine through the McKenzie Institute International. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and master and doctor of physical therapy degrees from Temple University.
Course Instructions
- Click on the Contents tab to watch the course recording.
- Click the Take Quiz button to complete the assessment. Learners will have 3 attempts to pass and must answer at least 70% of questions correctly.
- Click Fill Out Survey under the Evaluation listing to provide valuable course feedback. Scroll down on all questions as there may be answer options that expand past the size of the window.
- Click the View/Print Your Certificate button under the Certificate listing. You can view/print your certificate at any time by visiting the APTA Learning Center and clicking the CEU Certificate/Transcript link on the left-hand side of the page.
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