ASAM Patient Guide - NJ

English - 2015 ASAM Opioid Patient Guide

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3 ASSESSMENT Seeking help is the first important step to recovery. The next step in the process is to meet with a qualified clinician. A clinician is a health professional, such as a physician, psychiatrist, psychologist, or nurse. The clinician will review or assess how someone is doing - this first meeting is called an assessment. The goal of the assessment is to gain a thorough understanding of the patient. This will help the clinician and patient develop a treatment plan that best matches the patient's needs. Getting Started • The clinician will ask questions to understand nearly every part of a patient's life. The more that is known, the better treatment can be planned with the patient. • Common assessment questions include: • How long has someone been using drugs? • What other medications are being taken? • Are there special social or financial circumstances, or needs? • Is there a family history of addiction? • Are there other mental or chronic health problems? • The next step is a complete physical examination to check the patient's overall health. This includes finding other common conditions (physical or mental) related to addiction which may change how a patient is treated. • The physical examination will include tests to find both health problems and drugs in someone's body. The most common drug test uses a patient's urine and is called urine analysis.

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