MAC Trivia 4 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which federal law requires that substance use disorder treatment records receive stricter confidentiality protections than general medical records?
- HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act)
- 42 CFR Part 2 (Correct answer)
- The Mental Health Parity Act
- The Americans with Disabilities Act
Correct answer: 42 CFR Part 2
42 CFR Part 2 provides heightened confidentiality protections for records of substance use disorder treatment programs that receive federal assistance, requiring explicit patient consent for most disclosures.
Question 2: The 'Minnesota Model' of addiction treatment is primarily associated with which approach?
- Medication-assisted treatment with methadone
- The 12-step philosophy integrated into residential treatment (Correct answer)
- Harm reduction and motivational interviewing
- Cognitive-behavioral therapy in outpatient settings
Correct answer: The 12-step philosophy integrated into residential treatment
The Minnesota Model, developed in the 1950s at Hazelden and Willmar State Hospital, integrated Alcoholics Anonymous 12-step principles into professional residential treatment, forming the basis of many modern treatment programs.
Question 3: ASAM (American Society of Addiction Medicine) Patient Placement Criteria are primarily used to:
- Diagnose substance use disorders according to DSM criteria
- Determine the appropriate level of care for a patient (Correct answer)
- Certify addiction counselors at various professional levels
- Establish billing codes for insurance reimbursement
Correct answer: Determine the appropriate level of care for a patient
ASAM criteria provide a multidimensional framework for matching patients to the most appropriate level of addiction treatment care, from early intervention to medically managed intensive inpatient treatment.
Question 4: Which concept describes the phenomenon where a person uses a substance to manage withdrawal symptoms from another substance?
- Polysubstance abuse
- Cross-tolerance
- Self-medication hypothesis (Correct answer)
- Secondary addiction
Correct answer: Self-medication hypothesis
The self-medication hypothesis proposes that individuals use substances to cope with uncomfortable states — including withdrawal from other substances — suggesting that addressing underlying distress is essential to recovery.
Question 5: In Motivational Interviewing, the acronym 'OARS' stands for:
- Observe, Assess, Reflect, Summarize
- Open questions, Affirm, Reflect, Summarize (Correct answer)
- Orient, Advise, Reinforce, Support
- Offer, Acknowledge, Redirect, Sustain
Correct answer: Open questions, Affirm, Reflect, Summarize
OARS — Open questions, Affirming, Reflecting, and Summarizing — represents the core communication skills used in Motivational Interviewing to build rapport and elicit change talk.
Question 6: Which of the following is an example of 'harm reduction' in addiction services?
- Requiring abstinence as a condition of receiving housing assistance
- Providing naloxone kits to active opioid users (Correct answer)
- Mandating treatment as a condition of probation
- Requiring a 30-day sobriety period before entering residential treatment
Correct answer: Providing naloxone kits to active opioid users
Providing naloxone (Narcan) to active drug users is a harm reduction strategy — it reduces the risk of death from overdose without requiring abstinence as a condition of receiving the intervention.
Question 7: The concept of 'post-acute withdrawal syndrome' (PAWS) is most clinically significant because it:
- Occurs during the first 72 hours of abstinence and requires medical management
- Involves protracted, intermittent symptoms that can persist for months and trigger relapse (Correct answer)
- Only affects individuals withdrawing from opioids and benzodiazepines
- Is treated with the same medications used for acute withdrawal
Correct answer: Involves protracted, intermittent symptoms that can persist for months and trigger relapse
PAWS involves lingering psychological and physical symptoms (mood swings, sleep disturbances, cognitive fog, cravings) that can last months to years after acute withdrawal, significantly increasing relapse risk if unaddressed.
MAC Trivia 4
Which federal law requires that substance use disorder treatment records receive stricter confidentiality protections than general medical records?