Addiction Psychiatry

This rotation focuses on learning through direct patient care under faculty supervision, including performing detoxification procedures.

In this rotation, you will screen, diagnose, interview, assess, treat and conduct brief interventions for psychiatric patients with comorbid substance abuse disorders. You will learn to evaluate and treat patients with a variety of substance use disorders on an inpatient psychiatry unit.

Through these experiences, you will gain an increased understanding of the role psychiatrists take in the addiction setting as consultants and treating physicians. You will learn how chemical dependency interacts with other psychopathologies, how substance use disorders impact patients’ families, and how to create a full treatment plan using current strategies, including pharmacotherapy, group and individual psychotherapy and self-help groups.

You will also attend at least one Alcoholics Anonymous meeting and one Narcotics Anonymous meeting. Finally, you will discuss guided readings on chemical abuse problems, addressing prevention, origins and treatment.