Safe and Effective Management of Pain and Addiction - January 2019

Dawn Farm Addiction and Recovery Education Series

“Safe and Effective Management of Pain and Addiction” was presented on January 22, 2019; by Carl Christensen, MD, Ph.D., D-FASAM; and Mark A. Weiner, MD, D-FASAM. The Institute of Medicine estimates around a 100 million Americans suffer with chronic pain, and it’s estimated that about 10% of our population has or has had a substance use disorder. Both chronic pain and substance use disorders are major public health challenges, and treating concurrent pain and substance addiction is especially challenging. Common prescribing practices intended to provide relief of acute and chronic pain can trigger relapse in people with substance use disorders and have also fueled an epidemic of opioid misuse, addiction and overdose death. People with pain deserve relief, and the good news is there are strategies for acute and chronic pain management that are safe and effective for people at risk of or in recovery from substance use disorders. This presentation will discuss various methods of pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic pain management and their relative risks and benefits, and describe creative approaches to effective pain relief for people in recovery from substance use disorders.

This program is part of the Dawn Farm Education Series, a FREE, annual education series developed to provide accurate, helpful, hopeful, practical, current information about substance use disorders, recovery, family and related issues. The Education Series is organized by Dawn Farm, a non-profit community of programs providing a continuum of substance use disorder treatment and recovery support services. For information, please see http://www.dawnfarm.org/programs/education-series.

ABOUT THE PRESENTERS: Carl Christensen, MD, PhD, FACOG, D-FASAM, ABAM

Dr. Christensen is a Clinical Associate Professor at the Wayne State University School of Medicine and has a private medical practice in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Dr. Christensen specializes in the treatment of addiction and of chronic pain, especially pelvic pain. He obtained his MD and PhD in Biochemistry at Wayne State University School of Medicine and did his residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Hutzel Hospital. He then completed a Fellowship in Gynecologic Oncology at Duke University Medical Center. He is certified in Addiction Medicine and is a Fellow of the American Society of Addiction Medicine.

Dr. Christensen is the current Medical Director of the James Wardell Women’s Recovery Center, an outpatient program dedicated to caring for pregnant, chemically dependent women, as well as the Medical Director at the Tolan Medical Research Clinic in the Department of Psychiatry at WSU. He is also the Medical Director for Dawn Farm, and a member of the Advisory Board of Families Against Narcotics in Wayne County Michigan. He is the past president of the Michigan Society of Addiction Medicine and the current Medical Director of the Michigan Health Professional Recovery Program, which monitors impaired nurses, pharmacists and doctors. He was Associate Residency Director of the OB Gyn Residency at the Wayne State University School of Medicine until 2012.

Dr. Christensen has received numerous teaching awards. He has been named one of the “Top Docs” in Addiction Medicine in Hour Magazine since 2006.

Mark A. Weiner, MD, DFASAM Saint Joseph Mercy Hospital - Ann Arbor Medical Director of Substance Use Disorders Section Head, Addiction Medicine Program Director, Addiction Medicine Fellowship Medical Director, IHA Recovery Specialists

Dr. Weiner is the Section Chief of Addiction Medicine and serves as the Medical Director of Substance Use Disorders at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital Ann Arbor. He is also the Medical Director of IHA Specialists. He is the chair of the planning committee of the American Society of Addiction Medicine course, “Pain and Addiction: Common Threads” and is a member of the planning committee for the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) Annual Meeting. He is an editor of the ASAM Pain and Addiction Handbook. Dr. Weiner is the immediate past Chair of the Board of Trustees of Dawn Farm. Dr. Weiner has been acknowledged as a “Top Doc” annually since 2011 and was given The Excellence in Care Award by Detroit Hour Magazine in 2018.