Opioids are a class of drugs that include the illegal drug heroin as well as powerful pain relievers, such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, codeine, morphine, fentanyl and many others.

In this course, you will learn about opioid use and addiction and how it has evolved over time, leading to the current public health crisis in the United States. Course participants will learn about:

• Medical and non-medical use of opioids, including heroin and fentanyl
• How to manage pain with and without opioids
• The risks and neurological pathways to opioid addiction
• The individual, social, and economic impacts of addiction
• The latest harm reduction approaches that law enforcement and public health officials are using to reduce overdose deaths
• Empathic evidence-based behavioral approaches and effective medications that health care professionals can offer people who have an addiction to opioids
• How the path to recovery is not always straightforward but there is hope for a good life after addiction.

This course will challenge preconceptions you may have about addiction as a lack of will and who can become addicted to opioid drugs. You will learn that addiction is a disease of the brain, not a lack of will, and there are multiple ways people can become addicted to prescription and non-prescription opioids.