Addiction Medicine Newsroom

March 4, 2026 • Addiction Medicine Section

Pain Management and Addiction September 2025 Newsletter

Quarterly PMAM Newsletter featuring a summary of the Section meeting in Salt Lake City in September. Learn more about the section election results, two excellent guest speakers, and a note from past c...

June 18, 2025 • Addiction Medicine Section

Reining It In: Xylazine Overdose

Xylazine is increasingly prevalent in the unregulated drug supply. In this article from Critical Decisions in Emergency Medicine, learn how to recognize, manage, and treat xylazine overdoses.

April 29, 2025 • Addiction Medicine Section

Pain Management and Addiction April 2025 Newsletter

The section held its quarterly meeting on April 10, 2025. Guest lecturer Dr. Brian Hurley, President of ASAM, delivered an outstanding lecture. Be sure to check out the recording of this dynamic and i...

June 1, 2024 • Addiction Medicine Section

Pain Management and Addiction April 2024 Newsletter

We take immense pride in the dedication of emergency physicians committed to assisting those with substance use disorders, and who are actively working to mitigate addiction risk by creating pain mana...

January 2, 2024 • Addiction Medicine Section

Pain Management and Addiction Medicine Section Fall Newsletter and Annual Meeting Minutes

The section won the ACEP Teamwork Award after passing several resolutions at the 2022 ACEP Scientific Assembly.

March 24, 2023

PMAM Section Resolutions at the 2022 Council Meeting

There were 5 different resolutions passed at the 2022 Council Meeting with relevance to our section. One of our section objectives is to: “Provide guidance and support to assist emergency physicians ...

December 14, 2021 • Addiction Medicine Section

Pain Management and Addiction Medicine Section Recognized with Two Awards

We are very pleased to announce that the Pain Management and Addiction Medicine (PMAM) Section is the recipient of a 2021 Section Award for Service to the College.

January 14, 2021

Low-Dose Ketamine for Pediatric Sickle Cell Pain Crisis

An eight-year-old male presented to the emergency department (ED) with his mother for left leg pain consistent with his prior sickle cell pain crises episodes. He had first presented two days earlier ...

January 14, 2021

More Than a Local Agent: 10 Pearls of IV Lidocaine Use for Pain in the ED

Lidocaine is an amide-type local anesthetic that exerts its pharmacological action through the blockade of sodium channels in neural tissues, interrupting neuronal transmission.

January 14, 2021

Pain Management and Chest Tube Thoracostomy

Chest tube thoracostomy is standard of care for many emergent and non-emergent conditions in the emergency department (ED), including pneumothorax, hemothorax, and empyema.

January 14, 2021

Sub-Dissociative Dose Ketamine in the Emergency Department

A 44-year-old male presents to the emergency department (ED) after a motor vehicle collision. He was the restrained driver traveling at highway speeds.

May 19, 2020

ACEP Hosts Summit on Impact of Stigma and OUD in Emergency Settings

On January 23, 2020, the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) convened a summit, “Addressing the Opioid Stigma in the Emergency Department.”

May 19, 2020

Minimally Invasive Procedures for Headaches

Headache is one of the most common reasons for presentation to an emergency department (ED). In the United States, headache accounts for 3% of all visits.1 Headaches can either be primary or secondary...

May 19, 2020

Oldie but a Goodie: 10 Pearls of Droperidol

Dopamine antagonist (D2-R antagonist) from the butyrophenone family, a class of medications commonly known for their antipsychotic effects.

May 19, 2020

Trigger Point Injections in the Emergency Department

At 11:00 pm on a Saturday overnight, between the weekend warriors who had sipped a bit too much and the 68-year-old smoker who had developed a fever after two weeks of a worsening cough, a 32-year-old...

September 23, 2019

Marijuana Pain

The endocannabinoid system in involved in pain modulation through direct and synergistic effects on descending supraspinal pathways involving endocannabinoids, TRPV, PPAR, endorphins, enkaphalin and i...

September 23, 2019

Bills in the House & Senate to “Deregulate” Buprenorphine and Other Legislative & Regulatory News

As discussed in a recent “ACEP 911, Legislative Network Weekly Update” newsletter, there are now bills in the US House (HR 2482) and the US Senate (SR 2074) which seek to “deregulate” buprenorphine pr...

September 19, 2018

Lidocaine

Lidocaine as an opiate sparing analgesic: In an unblinded study of 32 patients with undifferentiated pain who received 1.5 mg/kg of IV lidocaine over 10 minutes then randomized to receive the same dos...

September 19, 2018

You’ve Got a Friend: Eva’s Village Opioid Overdose Recovery Program and Peer Recovery Specialists

The opioid epidemic continues to claim lives. While physicians have drastically changed their prescribing efforts, and prescribing laws have changed to reduce prescription opioid exposure, illicit opi...

September 19, 2018

Update on ACEP’s Opioid Advocacy Efforts

The U.S. House of Representatives spent two weeks in June completing floor consideration on bills to help address the opioid epidemic, which was the culmination of months of legislative hearings and m...