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    Addictions 

    The Scottish Addictions executive group meets every three months for an all day meeting with a teaching and business component.

    It's a place to discuss ideas and trends within the field in Scotland. If you're interested in attending, please contact our Chair.

    All meetings are held at the Golden Lion hotel in Stirling.

    Contact the Faculty

    Chair: Susanna Galea Singer

    Vice Chair: Maria Casserly

    Academic/Meetings Secretary: Iain Smith

    RCPsychiS Office Contact: Susan Richardson

     

    Annual Faculty conference

    Our annual Faculty Conference takes place in Spring (mid to late March), and usually offers the option to stay the evening prior and spend time / network with colleagues. We welcome any suggestions about topics or speakers for our proposed 2026 event.  If you have any ideas, get in touch.

    Other relevant events

    Information on upcoming events of relevance will be added shortly.

    Resources and supported documents

    Opioids Aware: A resource for patients and healthcare professionals to support prescribing of opioid medicines for pain

    A new opioid prescribing resource has been launched by the Faculty of Pain Medicine, Royal College of Anaesthetists; funded by Public Health England.

    Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs - Recovery Committee Report

    How can opioid substitution therapy (and drug treatment and recovery systems) be optimised to maximise recovery outcomes for service users?

    Read the full report

    Supporting documents

    Smoking

    • Ash Scotland briefing on Smoking, alcohol and opioid dependence
    • For methadone maintenance, ‘Discussion’ from Nahvi et al. Addiction Science & Clinical Practice, 2014,9:9. (PDF)‘Multiple studies suggest that smoking cessation medication adherence is an important determinant of cessation success, including among methadone-maintained smoker. In a retrospective cohort study in which methadone maintenance patients were prescribed varenicline during routine clinical care, varenicline treatment duration was significantly associated with smoking cessation. In two large smoking cessation trials among methadone maintenance patients, adherence to nicotine patch treatment was also shown to be associated with improved smoking cessation outcomes. Methadone-maintained smokers had fewer cigarettes per day and a 7.1x increased odds of abstinence on days in which they used patches compared to days they did not.’
    • Cookson C et al. Smoking and its treatment in addiction services: Clients’ and staff behaviour and attitudes.
    • BMC Health Services Research 2014, 14:304. ‘A large unmet clinical need is evident with a widespread failure to deliver smoking cessation interventions to an extraordinarily high prevalence population of smokers in addiction services. This is despite the majority of smokers reporting motivation to quit. Staff smoking and attitudes may be a contributory factor in these findings.’

    Further reading

    Read more to receive further information regarding a career in psychiatry