Trends and Evidence Based Treatment in Adolescents and Substance Use Disorder

Session 6 of the Northeast PA AHEC Navigating Youth Behavior Virtual Lunch & Learn Series

Date: March 19,2025

Speaker: Dr. Kawasaki is the Director of Addictions Services at Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute (PPI), Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Internal Medicine at Penn State Hershey, and Chief of Addiction Services at Penn State College of Medicine. She designed and directs Advancement in Recovery, an opioid treatment program at the Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute in Harrisburg, PA. She is board-certified in Internal Medicine and Addiction Medicine and has extensive clinical experience in both primary care and addiction medicine and a career interest in research to improve the delivery of evidence-based treatments to addicted patients in community-based treatment settings. She leads a Project ECHO teaching initiative for the treatment of Opioid Use Disorder, where physicians and advance practitioners learn how to provide competent care confidently for patients with opioid use disorder. She either leads or is co-investigator on several studies funded by NIH, SAMHSA and NIDA, and is part of the Clinical Trials Network Appalachian Node with West Virginia University and the University of Pittsburgh.

Learning Objectives:
Describe substance use trends in adolescents Assess underlying causes of substance use trends in adolescents Discuss evidence-based treatment for substance use disorders in adolescents

Practice GAP: Symptoms are underrecognized. Substance use disorder can be a challenge for family practice, and adolescents can be a challenge in addiction medicine. Adolescents are vulnerable to falling through the cracks, and to under-treatment. Substance use disorder treatment during this critical period of brain development must be provided in a timely manner, and with the best available evidence to ensure recovery and growth into adulthood.

AAFP Prescribed credit is accepted by the American Medical Association as equivalent to AMA PRA Category 1 credit(s)™ toward the AMA Physician's Recognition Award. When applying for the AMA PRA, Prescribed credit earned must be reported as Prescribed, not as Category 1.