Physicians’ attitudes towards patients with substance-related disorders predict training needs in addiction medicine: challenges and opportunities for strengthening the global addiction medicine workforce

Knowledge and skills influence attitudes, while attitudes predict these: they are intertwined and mutually reinforcing, meaning that addiction physicians with positive attitudes are likelier to have and want better-developed addiction knowledge and skills. To improve addiction services and reduce stigma, combining the MCRS and the AM-TNA could reveal specific SUD competence gaps and offers an opportunity to model the design of an integrated, stigma-focused, addiction training or intervention approach. Future research should focus on the longitudinal use of the combined scales, assess individual professionals' progress, and compare and combine self-reported competencies and attitudes with validated external assessments of learning, attitudes, self-efficacy and cognitive dissonance.