Dr. Romie Mushtaq, MD, ABIHM

Patients on MOUD who become seriously ill need coordinated care that balances addiction treatment and symptom relief. Chapter 1 of the SimsRx series—"Traditional Initiation Therapies for MOUD: Methadone vs Buprenorphine"—is live. It covers formulations, initiation approaches, practical pros/cons, a brief introduction to acute symptom management, and hospice‑specific considerations. #MOUD #AddictionMedicine #PalliativeCare #Hospice #Buprenorphine #Methadone #SimsRx

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Can mindfulness training help people with childhood trauma recover from opioid use disorder? A new study suggests yes—and it uncovers evidence on how. Researchers from Harvard University and Cambridge Health Alliance analyzed data from a 24-week online mindfulness-based program (M-ROCC) for people in buprenorphine treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD). Their focus? The impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). Key Insight: Among participants with high ACE scores, mindfulness led to reductions in self-critical rumination, which in turn reduced pain catastrophizing and pain interference—psychological symptoms that often complicate OUD recovery. These changes were not seen in the control group. This highlights the promise of trauma-sensitive mindfulness as a personalized approach to addiction recovery—especially for individuals burdened by early life adversity. The full study can be found here: https://lnkd.in/eY2vzgwY To learn more about the impacts of mindfulness training on folks with exposure to early life adversity see this review led by Shufang Sun here: https://lnkd.in/eN3MMNJg Congratulations to authors Diane Joss, Joseph Rosansky, Paula Gardiner, Robert R. Edwards, Roger D. Weiss, Vitaly Napadow and Zev Schuman-Olivier for this interesting study. #Mindfulness #AddictionRecovery #TraumaInformedCare #OpioidCrisis #MentalHealth #ACEs #ChronicPain #MBI #PsychologyResearch #SelfCompassion

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What practitioners learn in school is only the beginning. Real clinical skill develops when theory meets the complexity of real patients and that gap is rarely addressed in formal training. Join Hamid D. Montakab, acupuncture clinician, educator, and author with more than 50 years of clinical experience as he presents From Theory to Practice: Uncovering the Missing Links in Clinical Acupuncture. This webinar delves into foundational Chinese paradigms, the art of diagnosis, practitioner self-cultivation, and essential guidance for effective acupuncture therapy. You will explore practical tips, including the Golden Rules of acupuncture, to elevate your clinical practice and enhance patient outcomes. In this session you will learn: -Why standard training leaves critical clinical gaps unaddressed -How to bridge the distance between theory and real patient outcomes -What experienced practitioners do differently when cases become complex Live Webinar Sunday, March 29, 2026 8:30am - 11:45am PDT | 11:30am - 2:45pm ET 3.00 CEU / PDA / CPD 📌Register Now: https://lnkd.in/guTcghHh #Acupuncture #ClinicalAcupuncture #TCM #AcupunctureCE #ContinuingEducation #LiveWebinar #AcupunctureEducation

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This month on the American Occupational Therapy Association Mental Health Special Interest Section (MHSIS) microsite, we are highlighting a new scholarly contribution that offers a fresh, occupational therapy–centered approach to postpartum mental health: Crowl, H. (2025). Postpartum mindfulness framework: Integrating CBT into occupational therapy [Report]. Mental Health Special Interest Section (MHSIS), American Occupational Therapy Association. https://lnkd.in/eB4ByPtr This practice-oriented manuscript introduces the Postpartum Mindfulness Framework (PMF). PMF is a theory-informed, occupation-focused model that integrates Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), mindfulness, and the Occupational Therapy Practice Framework (OTPF-4). The PMF offers OTs a structured yet flexible way to support new mothers experiencing emotional regulation challenges, disrupted routines, role transitions, and shifts in occupational identity during the postpartum period. Why this matters: Postpartum mental health concerns affect up to 20% of new mothers and significantly influence daily functioning, caregiving, self-care, and role participation. The author argues that OT has a critical, yet often overlooked, role in comprehensive postpartum care. The PMF fills an important gap by linking evidence-based psychological strategies with our profession's emphasis on meaningful occupations, identity, and performance patterns. 🔑 Key Highlights: 🧠 Synthesizes CBT, mindfulness, and OT theory into an integrated practice model 🤝 Organizes the framework into concepts, principles, constructs, and domains aligned with OTPF-4 📋 Provides a detailed intervention table mapping each component to OT strategies and expected outcomes 🤰🏽Emphasizes maternal identity, emotional regulation, cognitive reframing, meaningful occupation, and compassionate self-awareness 💡Offers practical tools such as guided mindfulness, journaling, reframing cue cards, identity exploration, and occupation-based restructuring ❤️‍🩹 Situates OT as uniquely positioned to address emotional, cognitive, physical, and spiritual dimensions of postpartum recovery 👉 You can read the full article on the microsite here: https://lnkd.in/ePgsGth6 The MHSIS is actively seeking practice-oriented and scholarly contributions for this open-access microsite feature, which is the new home to content formerly shared in the MHSIS Quarterly, as well as a supplement to OT Practice magazine. Please contact Interim chair Allison Sullivan or any MHSIS standing committee member for more information on how to highlight your work in this space.

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This paper does not support co-treating as it is commonly practiced in outpatient clinics. It also does not show that co-treating leads to outcomes equivalent to one-on-one care. What it supports is the effectiveness of intentionally designed group exercise programs for a specific patient population. First, each participant in the group treatment intervention received a 1-hour individualized evaluation. This is critical for understanding a patient's concerns, providing initial education and reassurances, and establishing goals. So, no co-treating the evaluation. Second, the exercise programs were divided into three groups: - Lumbar (focused on low back pain) - Upper extremity (focused on shoulder pain) - Lower Extremity (focused on patellofemoral pain syndrome and lateral ankle sprain management) This structure allowed clinicians to narrow their clinical focus and allowed patients to train alongside others with similar musculoskeletal conditions. Thirdly, aside from the introductory 1-hour education class, the exercise classes were exclusively exercise. There was no attempt to layer manual therapy, pain education, and exercise into the same session. This distinction matters, as many co-treatment models attempt to compress multiple interventions into a limited time while dividing the clinician's attention. Finally, these programs were delivered to active military personnel with mild to moderate musculoskeletal pain. This population differs substantially from typical outpatient caseloads that include higher medical complexity, fall risk, chronic pain, and post-operative patients. I love the idea of using group classes to help with staffing shortages and wait lists. The study highlights that some patients will do just as well in a group exercise class as a full plan of care consisting exclusively of one-on-one PT appointments. But we need to be careful using group therapy studies in defense of co-treating and to refute the benefits of one-on-one care. Some patients require one-on-one treatment, others may thrive in group settings, and the most effective systems will offer multiple pathways rather than forcing all patients into the same model. This paper is a great reminder that there are many effective ways to design rehabilitation programs. There is no one-size-fits-all approach.

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This study highlights a significant link between gastrointestinal (GI) diseases and sleep disturbances, including sleep trouble, disorders, and reduced sleep duration. Using NHANES data, researchers found that individuals with GI conditions had higher odds of sleep problems, with depression partially mediating these relationships. Findings remained consistent across multiple subgroups and sensitivity analyses, emphasizing the need to address both GI and mental health to improve sleep outcomes. #SleepHealth #GastroHealth #MentalHealth #Wellness

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Language sample analysis is widely recommended, yet implementation challenges remain. Recent work examining Developmental Sentence Scoring highlights important questions about feasibility, efficiency, and clinical purpose in assessment practice. 📌 I’ll be sharing research-informed reflections on this topic over the coming posts. 📖 Bernstein Ratner et al. (2026)

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I’m so sick of doctors thinking they have the answers to everything to cover up how you all are still getting it so wrong. This is straight up capitalism and patriarchy fueled by whites supremacy culture. Starting in 2002, three months postpartum and one year sober, I was prescribed multiple psychiatric medications at the same time for a chemical imbalance I never had. I stayed on them for 16 years. In 2018, I tapered off two antidepressants and a mood stabilizer. I followed medical advice that nearly killed me. When I asked to reinstate five months later, I was refused. That is not care. That is unchecked power. I survived a 4.5-year protracted psych-med injury. I’m now finishing my MSW with 6 classes to go because reform doesn’t happen from the sidelines. It happens from the inside. I am not anti-medication. I am anti-harm and anti-systems that confuse suppression with healing. People aren’t disordered. We don’t have chemical imbalances. We have problems with living inside broken systems. Why would someone listen to me vs a doctor? Well first social workers resource people and doctors drug them. It’s the lens that is the problem. Seeing symptoms as signs of pathology and the need for medical treatment (drugs) vs seeing people as experts in their own lives is THE problem. And then there is metabolic psychiatry, the remodel of the biomedical + behavioral health system. Repacking 100 years of neurological research regarding epilepsy data on the use of ketogenic diets isn’t revolutionary. It’s a solve for the fact that the same psychiatrists prescribed multiple classes of psychotropic medications that caused an obesity and type II diabetes crises and the solution is keto and running labs. Again. That is an improvement and it aims at getting to the heart of the matter as it relates to biology. Yes keto works but please do not pass go without addressing who caused the obesity epidemic and how the same clinics doing functionals labs and concierge psychiatry are benefiting from a broken medical system that they make money on as is. We are human beings inside broken systems that blame people vs addressing the profit model that benefits infrastructure and institutions of care. So leave it to the macro based social workers like me to start a tech start up to solve it. I am. Watch me. And learn. For once. That you can’t fully trust the source that caused the harm. That’s just PPO. And if you don’t know what that means it’s time to sign up for one of our sliding scale CME and CEU. We are amassing an army of advocates. It will be easy. I’m disabled. And we are sick of being dismissed. #neurodiversity #dyslexia #adhdcoach #soccermom #comingclean #courageunlocked #useyourvoiceforgood

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