I would like to share with you a training experience that I found very enriching, (in connection with my training as a clinical psychologist which is about to end, at least from a university point of view, in a few months now); the Inter-University Diploma of Addictology: disorders related to substance use and behavioral addictions. This is a one-year training course, attached to the University Hospital of Nantes, which enables to train health, education and social action professionals who are confronted with the problems of addictive behaviors in the context of care or prevention, and to integrate them into their professional practices. It is open to psychology students (as was my case), psychologists, speech therapists, specialized educators, nurses, etc. This DIU is validated following a written test as well as the writing and defense of a thesis.
The objectives of this specific training are multiple; to understand in a global way all that contributes to the disorders, to their emergence, with a medical approach and an approach enriched by the human sciences; to identify (with the help of tools in particular), and to understand the related impacts to the use of substances and the impacts of behavioral addictions. This training was also an opportunity to get to know, and sometimes to discover, the different therapeutic approaches proposed in the treatment of addictive disorders and to integrate them into my (future) professional practice. Last but not least, it seems to me that it is essential to master the various networks of care and prevention in order to work in an optimal way and to provide the best possible care to the patients. In the field of psychological care, it is essential to have contacts, a network of professionals in order to orientate the patients in the best possible way, to the right place.
The content of the training is divided into four main parts. The first part includes general information on addictive disorders. It includes for example the history of addiction, the encounter with the addict, public health policies, the genetics of addictions etc.
A second, more substantial session focuses on substance-related disorders. Here we look at benzodiazepine use and drug dependence, opiate use disorders and the pharmacological aspects of opiate substitution treatments, nicotine use disorders, cocaine use and other psychostimulants, as well as cannabis use and new synthetic drugs. We are also interested in all the somatic complications that arise from the disorders related to the use of these substances and the psychiatric complications that they can cause.
The content on behavioral addictions focuses on excessive use of the Internet, pathological gambling, sexual addiction, compulsive shopping, work addiction, excessive use of video games, eating disorders or physical hyperactivity and doping behaviors.
The last part deals with treatment, the range of therapies that can be offered to patients suffering from addictions. This fourth part deals with the neurocognitive approach, the systemic approach, the behavioral and cognitive approach (we also talk about cognitive remediation), the psychoanalytical approach as well as the physical and emotional approach (with psychomotricity and sophrology).
All the participants in the training are people who work in the fields of addiction on a daily basis. Whether they are psychologists, doctors, sophrologists or psychiatrists, they all have experienced and a unique experience to share. It is also thanks to this team of quality speakers that I found this training extremely rich. Beyond important theoretical knowledge, I received, throughout this year, testimonies, advices, exchanges of experiences, reciprocity that were delicious to receive. This is what I appreciated the most about this training. What I retain in addition to the theoretical and clinical learning is the desire to share around a common problem, which brings us together, addictions. How can we, health professionals, by working together, propose the most adequate treatment to our patients? It is by working hand in hand that we will go in this direction.