- Joined
- Sep 17, 2015
- Messages
- 90
- Reaction score
- 69
I write this not to be disparaging, but just because I am a clueless intern with little experience.
A little background: One of our rotations as interns (probably the best, in terms of hours certainly, but also cool attendings) is at the VA substance abuse program. It's basically an intensive outpatient program that meets within the hospital. Anyway, besides prescribing some naltrexone or methadone, I didn't really see us doing much. I mean, sure, we'll talk to the patients and see them every few weeks, and I got to know my people pretty well, but it seemed like the heavy lifting was done by the patient and the rest of the program (going to the daily groups).
Maybe I'm missing something?
Anyway, it was a great experience and I am now seriously considering addiction psychiatry, particularly for opiate use disorder patients.
A little background: One of our rotations as interns (probably the best, in terms of hours certainly, but also cool attendings) is at the VA substance abuse program. It's basically an intensive outpatient program that meets within the hospital. Anyway, besides prescribing some naltrexone or methadone, I didn't really see us doing much. I mean, sure, we'll talk to the patients and see them every few weeks, and I got to know my people pretty well, but it seemed like the heavy lifting was done by the patient and the rest of the program (going to the daily groups).
Maybe I'm missing something?
Anyway, it was a great experience and I am now seriously considering addiction psychiatry, particularly for opiate use disorder patients.