Buprenorphine Sessions to Watch at the CSAM 2026 Annual Conference

Key Clinical Summary

• Sessions at the 2026 California Society of Addiction Medicine (CSAM) Annual Conference will address many topics, including buprenorphine initiation, precipitated withdrawal, and treatment retention for opioid use disorder (OUD).
• A direct-to-inject buprenorphine workshop will explore clinical algorithms, special populations, pharmacy access, reimbursement, and peer support across practice settings.
• Pain management programming will examine distinctions between physiologic opioid dependence and OUD, alongside patient-centered decisions about opioid therapy and buprenorphine transitions.

Practical approaches to initiating buprenorphine and navigating overlapping pain and opioid dependence are among the topics planned for the CSAM Annual Conference, held October 21–24, 2026, in Garden Grove, California. The meeting brings together addiction medicine, mental health, and primary care professionals for continuing medical education that spans clinical practice, prevention, harm reduction, and policy.

Session Highlights

“Direct-to-Inject (DTI) Long-Acting Injectable Buprenorphine: From Evidence to Implementation Across Clinical Settings” will combine an evidence review with small-group work on implementation barriers. The workshop will bring together physicians, physician assistants, a pharmacist, and a certified alcohol and drug counselor. Contributors include Hannah Snyder, MD, of UC San Francisco; David Dadiomov, PharmD, of the University of Southern California; and Kari Herbert, CADCII, of Marshall Medical.

Planned topics include first-dose decisions, management during the first 72 hours, and follow-up pathways in emergency departments, outpatient clinics, inpatient care, and street medicine.

The workshop will also address emerging considerations for adolescents, pregnant patients, and people with kratom or 7-hydroxymitragynine dependence. Stations will cover patient counseling, pharmacy access, medication storage, billing, and peer support, with participants developing an implementation action plan.

“Practical Updates in Pain Management and OUD,” led by Gregory Rudolf, MD, DFASAM, a staff physician at Swedish Pain Services in Seattle, will examine long-term opioid therapy, tapering, and assessment of problematic opioid use. A clinical case will frame discussion of buprenorphine transitions, ongoing pain management, and perioperative care.

Rudolf’s session will emphasize diagnostic reasoning when physiologic dependence, complex persistent opioid dependence, and OUD overlap. Attendees will also learn how to conduct nonjudgmental discussions about continuing, rotating, or adjusting opioid therapy.

In “Innovative and Low-Barrier Buprenorphine Initiations,” Andrew Herring, MD, chief of addiction medicine at Alameda Health System–Highland Hospital in Oakland, and Arianna Campbell, DMSc, MPH, PA-C, of The Bridge Center at PHI and VA NCHCS, will explore fresh initiation and retention strategies designed to improve patient access to the medication. Practical takeaways include applying an opioid-receptor recovery model and effective response to precipitated withdrawal.

Implications for Practice

For clinicians treating OUD or managing long-term opioid therapy, these sessions will address both clinical decisions and the systems needed to deliver care. Counseling, follow-up, pharmacy coordination, and reimbursement are explicit educational priorities attendees will encounter at the conference.

These priorities align closely with CSAM’s policy focus on expanding treatment access, including in rural communities, and reducing insurance, reimbursement, and system-level barriers to substance use disorder care.