Accreditation Information

Course Title: Identifying Substance Abuse as a Coping Mechanism for Psychological Distress

Release date: October, 2023

Expiration date: October, 2025

Estimated time to complete activity: 1 hour

Hardware / Software Requirements: Compatible with Internet Explorer 6 and up, Mozilla Firefox 3 and up, Safari 4.0, and Google Chrome 10 and up.

If you have any questions, please contact MER at (800)-421-3756, http://www.cmepartner.org/contact

To see MER Privacy Policy, scroll to bottom of this page.

This activity is jointly provided by Medical Education Resources and Symptom Media.

Target Audience

Licensed medical and healthcare professionals, physicians, mental healthcare professionals including psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, and marriage and family therapists (particularly those who see child and adolescent patients and/or parents). Students and trainees within these disciplines as well as allied health professionals.

Underlying Need for this Course

The purpose of this course is to assist healthcare professionals in properly identifying when teletherapy patients are abusing substances to cope with psychological distress for the purposes of providing effective resources and treatment recommendations.

• Healthcare workers must possess the knowledge of symptoms pertaining to substance abuse among teletherapy patients.
• Healthcare workers need to be competent in identifying substance abuse among teletherapy patients.
• Healthcare workers need to provide appropriate resources and treatment recommendations for teletherapy patients using substances to cope with psychological distress.

Substance use disorders are highly prevalent in the U.S. Patients may use substances as a self-medication tool to reduce psychological distress and negative emotionality. It is imperative that providers are competent in assessing for substance abuse and can properly conceptualize a potential substance use disorder.

• Learners will gain knowledge of substance abuse.
• Learners will feel competent in their ability to identify when substances are being used to cope with psychological distress.
• Learners will show performance improvement in their ability to differentiate substance use from substance abuse.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this course learners will be able to:

1. Identify substance abuse.
2. Differentiate substance abuse with substance use.
3. Identify general guidelines to follow when assessing for substance abuse.
4. Debunk misconceptions about substance abuse and self-medication.

Meet your instructor

Brooke Bartlett, Ph.D., Licensed Psychologist – Content Expert

Dr. Bartlett earned a Ph.D. and M.A. in clinical psychology from the University of Houston. She also earned a M.A. in psychology from Boston University, and a B.A. in psychology from the University of California, Irvine. Her clinical expertise is in the assessment and evidence-based treatment of PTSD and trauma-related pathology, anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, and substance use disorders. She is particularly specialized and passionate about working with first responders and military veterans. Dr. Bartlett’s research interests focus on trauma-related pathology, with an emphasis on the examination of risk and resilience processes and behaviors relevant to PTSD. Much of her program of research is focused on first responder and military veteran populations, and she believes it is important to produce research grounded in novel theoretical approaches that can be applied to evidence-based clinical practice. Dr. Bartlett has contributed extensively to the scientific literature of trauma psychology through numerous peer-reviewed journal article publications and presentations at national and local conferences, as well as a co-authored published book chapter. In addition to her clinical and research practice, Dr. Bartlett is a faculty member at multiple academic institutions teaching a broad range of psychology courses.

Course Agenda

The activity is designed to assist healthcare workers in identifying when teletherapy patients are abusing substances as a means of coping with psychological distress. It will also provide healthcare workers with general guidelines about how to approach teletherapy patients abusing substances, and learners will be able to identify and correct common misconceptions about self-medication.

Multiple methods of instruction including a series of online course slides that outline learning objectives, and highlight relevant content. The online course slides are meant to prepare learners for a clinical case application. Learners will also be offered multiple-choice, subject matter tests to assess comprehension of materials.

Accreditation Statement
In support of improving patient care, this activity has been planned and implemented by Medical Education Resources (MER) and Symptom Media. MER is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team

Physician Credit
Medical Education Resources designates this enduring material for a maximum of 1 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Nursing Credit
Medical Education Resources designates this enduring material for a maximum of 1 ANCC nursing contact hours.  Nurses will be awarded contact hours upon successful completion of the activity.

Medical Education Resources is a provider of continuing nursing education by the California Board of Registered Nursing, Provider #CEP 12299, for 1 contact hours.

Physician Assistant Credit

Medical Education Resources has been authorized by the American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA) to award AAPA Category 1 CME credit for activities planned in accordance with AAPA CME Criteria.  This activity is designated for 1 AAPA Category 1 CME Credits.  Physician Assistants should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation.

Psychologist Credit

Continuing Education (CE) credits for psychologists are provided through the co-sponsorship of the American Psychological Association (APA) Office of Continuing Education in Psychology (CEP). The APA CEP Office maintains responsibility for the content of the programs.

Social Work

As a Jointly Accredited Organization, Medical Education Resources is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved under this program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. Social workers completing this course receive 1 general continuing education credits.

Disclosure of Conflicts of Interest

Medical Education Resources ensures balance, independence, objectivity, and scientific rigor in all our educational programs. In accordance with this policy, MER identifies relevant financial relationships with its instructors, content managers, and other individuals who are in a position to control the content of an activity.  Reported relevant financial relationships are mitigated by MER to ensure that all scientific research referred to, reported, or used in a CE activity conforms to the generally accepted standards of experimental design, data collection, and analysis.  MER is committed to providing learners with high-quality CE activities that promote improvements or quality in health care and not the business interest of an ineligible company.

The faculty reported the following financial relationships with commercial interests whose products or services may be mentioned in this activity:

The content managers reported the following financial relationships with commercial interests whose products or services may be mentioned in this activity:

Method of Participation
There are no fees for participating in and receiving credit for this activity (or insert fee amount if applicable). During the period October, 2023 through October, 2025, participants must 1) read the learning objectives and faculty disclosures, 2) study the educational activity, 3) complete the posttest by recording the best answer to each question, 4) complete the evaluation.

A statement of credit will be issued only upon receipt of a completed activity evaluation form and a completed posttest with a score of 70% or better.

Media

Internet

References

• American Psychiatric Association: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth edition, Text Revision. Washington D.C., American Psychiatric Association, 2022.
• Baker TB, et al. Addiction motivation reformulated: An affective processing model of negative reinforcement. Psychol. Rev. 2004; 111:33–51.
• Blume, A. W., Schmaling, K. B., & Marlatt, G. A. (2000). Revisiting the self-medication hypothesis from a behavioral perspective. Cognitive and Behavioral Practice, 7(4), 379-384.
• Flanagan, J. C., Korte, K. J., Killeen, T. K., & Back, S. E. (2016). Concurrent Treatment of Substance Use and PTSD. Current psychiatry reports, 18(8), 70. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-016-0709-y.
• John Hopkins Medicine. (n.d.).  Substance Abuse/Chemical Dependency. John Hopkins Medicine. Retrieved December 20, 2022, from https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/substance-abuse-chemical-dependency.
• Khantzian EJ. The self-medication hypothesis of addictive disorders: Focus on heroin and cocaine dependence. Am. J. Psychiatry. 1985; 142:1259–1264.
• Sinha R. How does stress increase risk of drug abuse and relapse? Psychopharmacology (Berl.) 2001;158:343–359.
• Sinha, R. (2008). Chronic stress, drug use, and vulnerability to addiction. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1141, 105–130. https://doi.org/10.1196/annals.1441.030.

Disclaimer

The content and views presented in this educational activity are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of Medical Education Resources and/or Symptom Media. The authors have disclosed if there is any discussion of published and/or investigational uses of agents that are not indicated by the FDA in their presentations. Before prescribing any medicine, primary references and full prescribing information should be consulted. Any procedures, medications, or other courses of diagnosis or treatment discussed or suggested in this activity should not be used by clinicians without evaluation of their patient’s conditions and possible contraindications on dangers in use, review of any applicable manufacturer’s product information, and comparison with recommendations of other authorities. The information presented in this activity is not meant to serve as a guideline for patient management.

MER Privacy Policy: cmepartner.org/privacy

Accreditation Information

Course Title: Differentiating PTSD and Panic Disorder on Teletherapy

Release date: June, 2023

Expiration date: June, 2025

Estimated time to complete activity: 1 hour

Hardware / Software Requirements: Compatible with Internet Explorer 6 and up, Mozilla Firefox 3 and up, Safari 4.0, and Google Chrome 10 and up.

If you have any questions, please contact MER at (800)-421-3756, http://www.cmepartner.org/contact

To see MER Privacy Policy, scroll to bottom of this page.

This activity is jointly provided by Medical Education Resources and Symptom Media.

Target Audience

Licensed medical and healthcare professionals, physicians, mental healthcare professionals including psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, and marriage and family therapists (particularly those who see child and adolescent patients and/or parents). Students and trainees within these disciplines as well as allied health professionals.

Underlying Need for this Course

The purpose of this course is to assist healthcare professionals in properly identifying and differentiating PTSD and panic disorder teletherapy patients for the purposes of providing effective resources and treatment recommendations.

• Healthcare workers must possess the knowledge of symptoms pertaining to PTSD and panic disorder among teletherapy patients.
• Healthcare workers need to be competent in identifying PTSD and/or panic disorder among teletherapy patients.
• Healthcare workers need to provide appropriate resources and treatment recommendations for teletherapy patients experiencing symptoms of PTSD and/or panic disorder.

PTSD and panic disorder have similar symptoms, and as a result, providers sometimes give patients incorrect treatment recommendations. Being able to assess for and distinguish PTSD and panic disorder is imperative for providing appropriate prevention and intervention methods.

•  Learners will gain knowledge of PTSD and panic disorder.
• Learners will feel competent in their ability to identify and assess for PTSD and panic disorder.
• Learners will show performance improvement in their ability to differentiate PTSD and panic disorder.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this course learners will be able to:

1. Identify PTSD and panic disorder.
2. Differentiate PTSD and panic disorder.
3. Identify general guidelines to follow when determining whether a patient is experiencing symptoms of PTSD and panic disorder.
4. Debunk misconceptions about PTSD and panic disorder.

Meet your instructor

Brooke Bartlett, Ph.D., Licensed Psychological Associate – Content Expert

Dr. Bartlett earned a Ph.D. and M.A. in clinical psychology from the University of Houston. She also earned a M.A. in psychology from Boston University, and a B.A. in psychology from the University of California, Irvine. Her clinical expertise is in the assessment and evidence-based treatment of PTSD and trauma-related pathology, anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, and substance use disorders. She is particularly specialized and passionate about working with first responders and military veterans. Dr. Bartlett’s research interests focus on trauma-related pathology, with an emphasis on the examination of risk and resilience processes and behaviors relevant to PTSD. Much of her program of research is focused on first responder and military veteran populations, and she believes it is important to produce research grounded in novel theoretical approaches that can be applied to evidence-based clinical practice. Dr. Bartlett has contributed extensively to the scientific literature of trauma psychology through numerous peer-reviewed journal article publications and presentations at national and local conferences, as well as a co-authored published book chapter. In addition to her clinical and research practice, Dr. Bartlett is a faculty member at multiple academic institutions teaching a broad range of psychology courses.

Course Agenda

The activity is designed to assist healthcare workers in identifying and differentiating PTSD and panic disorder. It will also provide healthcare workers with general guidelines about how to approach teletherapy patients presenting with symptoms related to PTSD and/or panic disorder, and learners will be able to identify and correct common misconceptions about the two diagnoses.

Multiple methods of instruction including a series of online course slides that outline learning objectives, and highlight relevant content. The online course slides are meant to prepare learners for a clinical case application. Learners will also be offered multiple-choice, subject matter tests to assess comprehension of materials.

Accreditation Statement
In support of improving patient care, this activity has been planned and implemented by Medical Education Resources (MER) and Symptom Media. MER is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team

Physician Credit
Medical Education Resources designates this enduring material for a maximum of 1 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Nursing Credit
Medical Education Resources designates this enduring material for a maximum of 1 ANCC nursing contact hours.  Nurses will be awarded contact hours upon successful completion of the activity.

Medical Education Resources is a provider of continuing nursing education by the California Board of Registered Nursing, Provider #CEP 12299, for 1 contact hours.

Physician Assistant Credit

Medical Education Resources has been authorized by the American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA) to award AAPA Category 1 CME credit for activities planned in accordance with AAPA CME Criteria.  This activity is designated for 1 AAPA Category 1 CME Credits.  Physician Assistants should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation.

Psychologist Credit

Continuing Education (CE) credits for psychologists are provided through the co-sponsorship of the American Psychological Association (APA) Office of Continuing Education in Psychology (CEP). The APA CEP Office maintains responsibility for the content of the programs.

Social Work

As a Jointly Accredited Organization, Medical Education Resources is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved under this program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. Social workers completing this course receive 1 general continuing education credits.

Disclosure of Conflicts of Interest

Medical Education Resources ensures balance, independence, objectivity, and scientific rigor in all our educational programs. In accordance with this policy, MER identifies relevant financial relationships with its instructors, content managers, and other individuals who are in a position to control the content of an activity.  Reported relevant financial relationships are mitigated by MER to ensure that all scientific research referred to, reported, or used in a CE activity conforms to the generally accepted standards of experimental design, data collection, and analysis.  MER is committed to providing learners with high-quality CE activities that promote improvements or quality in health care and not the business interest of an ineligible company.

The faculty reported the following financial relationships with commercial interests whose products or services may be mentioned in this activity:

The content managers reported the following financial relationships with commercial interests whose products or services may be mentioned in this activity:

Method of Participation
There are no fees for participating in and receiving credit for this activity (or insert fee amount if applicable). During the period June, 2023 through June, 2025, participants must 1) read the learning objectives and faculty disclosures, 2) study the educational activity, 3) complete the posttest by recording the best answer to each question, 4) complete the evaluation.

A statement of credit will be issued only upon receipt of a completed activity evaluation form and a completed posttest with a score of 70% or better.

Media

Internet

References

• American Psychiatric Association: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth edition, Text Revision. Washington D.C., American Psychiatric Association, 2022.

Disclaimer

The content and views presented in this educational activity are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of Medical Education Resources and/or Symptom Media. The authors have disclosed if there is any discussion of published and/or investigational uses of agents that are not indicated by the FDA in their presentations. Before prescribing any medicine, primary references and full prescribing information should be consulted. Any procedures, medications, or other courses of diagnosis or treatment discussed or suggested in this activity should not be used by clinicians without evaluation of their patient’s conditions and possible contraindications on dangers in use, review of any applicable manufacturer’s product information, and comparison with recommendations of other authorities. The information presented in this activity is not meant to serve as a guideline for patient management.

MER Privacy Policy: cmepartner.org/privacy

Accreditation Information

Course Title: Assessing for Trauma-Related Flashbacks via Teletherapy

Release date: May, 2023

Expiration date: May, 2025

Estimated time to complete activity: 1 hour

Hardware / Software Requirements: Compatible with Internet Explorer 6 and up, Mozilla Firefox 3 and up, Safari 4.0, and Google Chrome 10 and up.

If you have any questions, please contact MER at (800)-421-3756, http://www.cmepartner.org/contact

To see MER Privacy Policy, scroll to bottom of this page.

This activity is jointly provided by Medical Education Resources and Symptom Media.

Target Audience

Licensed medical and healthcare professionals, physicians, mental healthcare professionals including psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, and marriage and family therapists (particularly those who see child and adolescent patients and/or parents). Students and trainees within these disciplines as well as allied health professionals.

Underlying Need for this Course

The purpose of this course is to assist healthcare professionals in properly identifying and assessing for TRFBs for the purposes of providing effective resources and treatment recommendations.

• Healthcare workers must possess the knowledge of symptoms pertaining to TRFBs among teletherapy patients.
• Healthcare workers need to be competent in identifying TRFBs among teletherapy patients.
• Healthcare workers need to provide appropriate resources and treatment recommendations for teletherapy patients experiencing symptoms of TRFB.

Symptoms of TRFBs may be difficult to identify and are often over diagnosed. It is imperative that providers are able to identify symptoms of TRFB’s among teletherapy patients and approach them in a culturally competent manner. Being able to identify symptoms TRFBs will lead to appropriate evaluation and treatment recommendations.

• Learners will gain knowledge of TRFBs.
• Learners will feel competent in their ability to identify TRFBs.
• Learners will show performance improvement in their ability to assess for TRFBs.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this course learners will be able to:

1. Identify TRFBs.
2. Assess for TRFBs.
3. Identify general guidelines to follow when working with a teletherapy patient reporting symptoms of a TRFB.
4. Debunk misconceptions about TRFBs.

Meet your instructor

Brooke Bartlett, Ph.D., Licensed Psychologist – Content Expert

Dr. Bartlett earned a Ph.D. and M.A. in clinical psychology from the University of Houston. She also earned a M.A. in psychology from Boston University, and a B.A. in psychology from the University of California, Irvine. Her clinical expertise is in the assessment and evidence-based treatment of PTSD and trauma-related pathology, anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, and substance use disorders. She is particularly specialized and passionate about working with first responders and military veterans. Dr. Bartlett’s research interests focus on trauma-related pathology, with an emphasis on the examination of risk and resilience processes and behaviors relevant to PTSD. Much of her program of research is focused on first responder and military veteran populations, and she believes it is important to produce research grounded in novel theoretical approaches that can be applied to evidence-based clinical practice. Dr. Bartlett has contributed extensively to the scientific literature of trauma psychology through numerous peer-reviewed journal article publications and presentations at national and local conferences, as well as a co-authored published book chapter. In addition to her clinical and research practice, Dr. Bartlett is a faculty member at multiple academic institutions teaching a broad range of psychology courses.

Course Agenda

The activity is designed to assist healthcare workers in identifying and assessing for trauma-related flashbacks (TRFBs). It will also provide healthcare workers with general guidelines about how to approach teletherapy patients presenting with symptoms related to TRFBs, and learners will be able to identify and correct common misconceptions about them.

Multiple methods of instruction including a series of online course slides that outline learning objectives, and highlight relevant content. The online course slides are meant to prepare learners for a clinical case application. Learners will also be offered multiple-choice, subject matter tests to assess comprehension of materials.

Accreditation Statement
In support of improving patient care, this activity has been planned and implemented by Medical Education Resources (MER) and Symptom Media. MER is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team

Physician Credit
Medical Education Resources designates this enduring material for a maximum of 1 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Nursing Credit
Medical Education Resources designates this enduring material for a maximum of 1 ANCC nursing contact hours.  Nurses will be awarded contact hours upon successful completion of the activity.

Medical Education Resources is a provider of continuing nursing education by the California Board of Registered Nursing, Provider #CEP 12299, for 1 contact hours.

Physician Assistant Credit

Medical Education Resources has been authorized by the American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA) to award AAPA Category 1 CME credit for activities planned in accordance with AAPA CME Criteria.  This activity is designated for 1 AAPA Category 1 CME Credits.  Physician Assistants should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation.

Psychologist Credit

Continuing Education (CE) credits for psychologists are provided through the co-sponsorship of the American Psychological Association (APA) Office of Continuing Education in Psychology (CEP). The APA CEP Office maintains responsibility for the content of the programs.

Social Work

As a Jointly Accredited Organization, Medical Education Resources is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved under this program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. Social workers completing this course receive 1 general continuing education credits.

Disclosure of Conflicts of Interest

Medical Education Resources ensures balance, independence, objectivity, and scientific rigor in all our educational programs. In accordance with this policy, MER identifies relevant financial relationships with its instructors, content managers, and other individuals who are in a position to control the content of an activity.  Reported relevant financial relationships are mitigated by MER to ensure that all scientific research referred to, reported, or used in a CE activity conforms to the generally accepted standards of experimental design, data collection, and analysis.  MER is committed to providing learners with high-quality CE activities that promote improvements or quality in health care and not the business interest of an ineligible company.

The faculty reported the following financial relationships with commercial interests whose products or services may be mentioned in this activity:

The content managers reported the following financial relationships with commercial interests whose products or services may be mentioned in this activity:

Method of Participation
There are no fees for participating in and receiving credit for this activity (or insert fee amount if applicable). During the period May, 2023 through May, 2025, participants must 1) read the learning objectives and faculty disclosures, 2) study the educational activity, 3) complete the posttest by recording the best answer to each question, 4) complete the evaluation.

A statement of credit will be issued only upon receipt of a completed activity evaluation form and a completed posttest with a score of 70% or better.

Media

Internet

References

• American Psychiatric Association: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth edition, Text Revision. Washington D.C., American Psychiatric Association, 2022.
• Browne, K. C., Trim, R. S., Myers, U. S., & Norman, S. B. (2015). Trauma-related guilt: Conceptual development and relationship with posttraumatic stress and depressive symptoms. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 28(2), 134–141. doi:10.1002/jts.21999.
• Guzman, D., Ann‐Yi, S., Bruera, E., Wu, J., Williams, J. L., Najera, J., … & Carmack, C. L. (2020). Enhancing palliative care patient access to psychological counseling through outreach telehealth services. Psycho‐Oncology, 29(1), 132-138. doi: 10.1002/pon.5270.
• Kip, A., Diele, J., Holling, H., & Morina, N. (2022). The relationship of trauma-related guilt with PTSD symptoms in adult trauma survivors: a meta-analysis. Psychological medicine, 52(12), 2201-2211. https:// doi.org/10.1017/S0033291722001866
• Norman, S. B., Haller, M., Kim, H. M., Allard, C. B., Porter, K. E., Stein, M. B., … Rauch, S. A. M. (2018). Trauma related guilt cognitions partially mediate the relationship between PTSD symptom severity and functioning among returning combat veterans. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 100, 56–62. doi:10.1016/j.jpsychires.2018.02.003.
• Poletti, B., Tagini, S., Brugnera, A., Parolin, L., Pievani, L., Ferrucci, R., … & Silani, V. (2021). Telepsychotherapy: a leaflet for psychotherapists in the age of COVID-19. A review of the evidence. Counselling Psychology Quarterly, 34(3-4), 352-367.

Disclaimer

The content and views presented in this educational activity are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of Medical Education Resources and/or Symptom Media. The authors have disclosed if there is any discussion of published and/or investigational uses of agents that are not indicated by the FDA in their presentations. Before prescribing any medicine, primary references and full prescribing information should be consulted. Any procedures, medications, or other courses of diagnosis or treatment discussed or suggested in this activity should not be used by clinicians without evaluation of their patient’s conditions and possible contraindications on dangers in use, review of any applicable manufacturer’s product information, and comparison with recommendations of other authorities. The information presented in this activity is not meant to serve as a guideline for patient management.

MER Privacy Policy: cmepartner.org/privacy