Opioid Use Disorder Screening for Women Across the Lifespan

A session at the recent Nurse Practitioners in Women’s Health (NPWH) annual conference focused on the opioid epidemic, highlighting that women may be more susceptible than men to addiction and relapse, and that early detection and intervention through screening is paramount.

In this exclusive MedPage Today video, NPWH Committee Co-chair Ginny Moore, DNP, APRN, of Vanderbilt University School of Nursing in Nashville, describes the objectives and takeaway from her presentation, and offers some thoughts on the success of the NPWH conference overall.

Following is a transcript of her remarks:

Hello, my name is Ginny Moore. I’m a women’s health nurse practitioner, and I serve as the academic director of the women’s health nurse practitioner specialty at Vanderbilt University. At the recent NPWH conference, three of my faculty colleagues — Lindsey Baksh, Shelza Rivas, Shaunna Parker — and I presented on the topic of opioid use disorder screening across the women’s health lifespan.

Oftentimes when we think about opioid use disorder, or OUD, screening, we focus solely on pregnant women. Our presentation highlighted the need for screening across the women’s health lifespan. We had three objectives for our presentation. The first was to discuss the incidence of OUD, which we know exists on a spectrum of severity, from mild to moderate to severe.

Recent data from the CDC that was released just this summer showed that overdose deaths rose to 29.4% in 2020, with more than two-thirds of those deaths involving the use of opioids. Men have a higher incidence of opioid deaths, but women have a higher susceptibility to misuse. The telescoping effect, which is the period of time from use to dependence, is greater in women, which underscores the need for screening.

Our second objective was to review professional recommendations for screening. And the third objective was to identify OUD screening methods appropriate for use in adolescent, childbearing, and senior populations.

Our takeaway message from the presentation was that healthcare providers should be aware of the screening recommendations from professional organizations and use appropriate screening methods for each population.

Now, I referenced NPWH earlier — NPWH stands for Nurse Practitioners in Women’s Health. We are the professional community for women’s health nurse practitioners and advanced practice registered nurses who provide women’s and gender-related healthcare. Our conference was held virtually this past October. Participants have the opportunity to earn 37 continuing education units. And I use active tense because the content is still available. People can register through December 12, and all registrants have access to the presentations through January 12.

Our conference theme this year was “challenge, transform, thrive.” The year of 2020 presented challenges for all of us that were previously unexperienced. The words “transform” and “thrive” are actions that our planning committee felt most accurately described the responses of healthcare providers to the challenges that the pandemic presented. Our overall goals for the conference were to acknowledge and celebrate the transformations that everyone experienced this past year and also to provide support for providers as they continue to thrive in their roles.

This was the second consecutive year that we offered the conference in a virtual format. So we were able to build on the foundation that we established last year, and it resulted in our most successful conference to date. That being said, we miss being together. Next year, we are planning to be in-person. The conference dates will be September 29 to October 2. It will be our 25th annual NPWH conference. We’ll be in Houston, Texas, and we hope you’ll join us there.