Publications by authors named "Scott A Breitinger"

Background: COVID-19 worsened an already existing problem in substance use disorder (SUD) treatment. However, it helped transform the use of telehealth, which particularly benefits rural America. The lack of specialty addiction treatment in rural areas places the onus on primary care providers.

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Article Synopsis
  • Bipolar disorder is common in primary care, but effective collaborative treatment models for bipolar depression are lacking, prompting a study to compare pharmacological treatment patterns across primary care, integrated behavioral health, and mood specialty clinics.
  • The research analyzed treatment approaches for adults with bipolar depression in 2020, focusing on various pharmacological strategies and utilizing logistic regression for data analysis.
  • Results showed that primary care tended to continue existing treatments while integrated behavioral health and specialty clinics favored combination therapy; overall, the study highlights delays in care and emphasizes the need for improved decision support tools in bipolar depression management.
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Article Synopsis
  • Mobile phone applications (MPAs) are gaining traction in treating substance use disorders (SUD), but previous reviews have shown limited evidence supporting their effectiveness.
  • An umbrella review analyzed seven existing reviews and conducted a meta-analysis on 17 unique studies, concluding that while evidence for MPAs in SUD treatment is weak, certain strategies like recovery support services, cognitive behavioral therapy, and contingency management show promising results.
  • Contingency management had a significant positive effect in the analysis, but was based on small sample sizes; the review also provides a framework for clinicians to evaluate MPAs with patients.
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Purpose: Telehealth is associated with a myriad of benefits; however, little is known regarding substance use disorder (SUD) treatment outcomes when participants join group therapy sessions in a combination in-person and virtual setting (hybrid model). We sought to determine if treatment completion rates differed.

Patients And Methods: Policy changes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic created a naturalistic, observational cohort study at seven intensive outpatient (IOP) programs in rural Minnesota.

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Background: Professional distress and burnout are increasingly common among health professionals. This trend prompted stakeholders at a large multicenter health care system to survey supervisors for improvement opportunities. The stakeholders learned that workplace leaders lacked tools and direction for appropriately responding to distressed employees.

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Purpose: Between 30 and 68% of patients prematurely discontinue their antidepressant treatment, posing significant risks to patient safety and healthcare outcomes. Online healthcare forums have the potential to offer a rich and unique source of data, revealing dimensions of antidepressant discontinuation that may not be captured by conventional data sources.

Methods: We analyzed 891 patient narratives from the online healthcare forum, "askapatient.

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Background And Objectives: Substance use disorders (SUDs) are chronic relapsing diseases characterized by significant morbidity and mortality. Phenomenologically, patients with SUDs present with a repeating cycle of intoxication, withdrawal, and craving, significantly impacting their diagnosis and treatment. There is a need for better identification and monitoring of these disease states.

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During the current coronavirus disease 2019 epidemic, many outpatient chemical dependency treatment programs and clinics are decreasing their number of in-person patient contacts. This has widened an already large gap between patients with substance use disorders (SUDs) who need treatment and those who have actually received treatment. For a disorder where group therapy has been the mainstay treatment option for decades, social distancing, shelter in place, and treatment discontinuation have created an urgent need for alternative approaches to addiction treatment.

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