Chemical Dependency and Substance Abuse: The Disorder and Its Treatment

This course meets CA pre-licensure requirements for LCSWs, LPCCs, and MFTs.

This course is also offered as part of a Pre-licensing Savings Package

Psychologists please note: The 15 hours of coursework in Chemical Dependency must be completed at an academic institution.

Perhaps no other disorder cuts across so many domains and is connected with other disorders as substance abuse. In 2018, approximately 20.3 million people aged 12 or older had a substance use disorder (SUD) related to their use of alcohol or illicit drugs in the past year, including 14.8 million people who had an alcohol use disorder and 8.1 million people who had an illicit drug use disorder. The most common illicit drug use disorder was marijuana use disorder (4.4 million people). An estimated 2.0 million people had an opioid use disorder, which includes 1.7 million people with a prescription pain reliever use disorder and 0.5 million people with a heroin use disorder. Despite its widespread occurrence, clients who come to therapy usually don’t come for that issue. Most people with substance abuse problems attempt to treat themselves, and if they come to therapy, they are often likely to present and talk about other issues. Therefore, it is imperative for the therapist to be able to identify the signs of substance abuse–both the obvious and subtle.

This intermediate level course describes the most commonly abused substances and the characteristics of each substance as well as the signs of abuse and addiction and the most effective treatment principles and therapeutic techniques. This course is comprised of 17 articles and 4 audios. Section One describes the substances, their chemical mechanisms, and their unique psychological and behavioral effects. It describes the incidence of use–geographically, by age groups, and in both the United States and Europe. Section Two outlines information on various substances to help identify their prevalence, presence, mechanisms and use trends. Section Three presents articles and podcasts (transcripts provided)describing principles and methods of substance abuse treatment for individuals and family. Section Four provides information in successful harm reduction programs. Additional resources and references are provided for further study, but they are not part of the course.

Disclaimer: This course is purely educational and does not intend to serve as a license (or permission) to mental health professionals to prescribe or practice any of the approaches discussed in this course unless they fall within the scope of practice of your profession. Check with your licensing board about the scope of practice of your profession to make sure you practice within that scope.It also does not serve as a permission to title yourself in any specific way.