Emergency medical treatment: slides for medical education

First published: 18 August 2021 | Last updated: 18 August 2021

This is the fifth in a series of slides designed for medical education as well as for all people interested in addiction. This slide set covers the core and distinctive issues for emergency medical treatment for adverse effects of drugs and has been designed in collaboration with Drug Science. All educational resources, including slides and fact-sheets for use in medical education, can be found in our Knowledge Hub.

This set of educational slides will help front-line healthcare workers understand the appropriate emergency medical treatment for drug- and alcohol-related admissions. The slides will also be helpful for harm reduction initiatives in community settings.

Download the slides

There are several more slide sets to come, including opioid substitution treatment and the pharmacology of addiction. We will let you know when they become available.


The Society for the Study of Addiction (SSA) worked with Drug Science in 2020 and 2021 to develop and update this slide series for use in medical education. Medical practitioners are often the first people to come into contact with people who use substances, and it is vital that those practitioners are able to provide a positive response and to deliver evidence-based interventions from that first moment and all the way through to the end of that person’s care.

These slides are primarily for use in medical education settings but have been carefully designed to ensure that they are accessible for a wide range of people. They will therefore provide a rapid overview for medical students and other healthcare professionals. They are free to use; the aim of both organisations is to optimise dissemination of research into practice, so if these slides are of use to you, please use them. If you have any queries, please contact Drug Science or SSA through their websites and we will be glad to answer your questions.