
Busting Myths About Addiction: Interprofessional Panel
Seven Yale instructors from medicine, physician associate studies, nursing, and public health sit down together to correct common misconceptions about substance use disorder and its treatment, part of Yale's course Addiction Treatment: Clinical Skills for Healthcare Providers. Speaking as a panel rather than in separate lectures, they push back on the idea that addiction is a moral failing or a matter of willpower, framing it instead as a chronic, relapsing-remitting but treatable disease. Each panelist brings a different clinical lens, so a physician's take on diagnosis sits next to a nurse's perspective on day-to-day patient management and a public health view on access to care. The discussion draws on the course's running model case, built around actors playing a patient, to ground the myth-busting in a concrete clinical scenario rather than abstractions. It works as a short primer on how addiction is actually understood in evidence-based practice, aimed at healthcare providers but clear enough for any interested viewer.