Neuroscience of Addiction
Join us for an interdisciplinary exploration of addiction through the lens of neuroscience. Open to learners at all levels, these flexible online courses provide practical, evidence-informed insights while allowing you to earn continuing education credit (ACE/ASWB) on your own schedule.
Click here to see our new courses, available now through September 1, 2027!
- All courses are available on demand
- Courses are completed entirely online in an asynchronous format.
- You can enroll at any time, 24/7 and gain immediate access to all course materials.
- Certificates are available immediately following successful course completion.
New Courses - Now Available!
Foundational Neuroscience Series
All three courses can be taken individually.
Build a practical foundation in neuroscience with this three-course series, designed specifically for social work and behavioral health practitioners. Courses in this series provide a “deep dive” into the cellular and molecular processes that shape brain function—the “behind the scenes” elements that come together to form bigger-picture concepts like learning, plasticity, cognition, and clinical conditions such as substance dependence.
This series is ideal for anyone who wants to better understand how neurons communicate, how that communication is regulated, and how these processes collectively give rise to larger-scale changes in brain function and behavior. It also provides a deeper look at the foundational neuroscience underlying many of the topics addressed in the Neuroscience of Addiction series.
Each course takes participants step-by-step through the fundamentals of neural communication - from how individual neurons generate electrical signals, to how neurons communicate with one another, to how those signals are received and regulated.
Courses in this series can be taken individually, but we recommend starting with Foundations 1.
Individual Courses
Foundations 1: Communication in the Human Nervous System
1.5 Continuing Education (CE) Hours
Price: $35
Available On Demand - Enroll Here!
This course introduces nervous system organization, neuron structure, membrane potential, ion movement, and action potentials - providing the foundation for understanding how information is generated and transmitted within the brain.
Key topics: neuron structure and function • nervous system organization • membrane potential • ion movement • action potentials • electrical signaling
Foundations 2: Neurotransmitters & Clinical Examples
1.75 Continuing Education (CE) Hours
Price: $40
Available On Demand - Enroll Here
Building on Foundations 1, this course examines synaptic communication, neurotransmitter synthesis, storage and release, and the functions of major neurotransmitter systems. Clinical connections illustrate how changes in chemical signaling relate to behavior, cognition, substance use, psychiatric conditions, brain injury, and neurological disorders.
Key topics: synaptic structure • electrical and chemical synapses • neurotransmitter synthesis and release
Foundations 3: Neurotransmission & Signal Regulation
1.5 Continuing Education (CE) Hours
Price: $35
Available On Demand - Enroll Here
This third and final course in the Foundations series, explores receptor activation, postsynaptic responses, intracellular signaling, and mechanisms such as reuptake and enzymatic degradation that regulate and terminate neural communication.
Key topics: ionotropic and metabotropic receptors • voltage-gated channels • postsynaptic signaling • reuptake • enzymatic degradation • regulation
Neuroscience of Addiction Series
All courses can be taken individually.
Develop a deeper, neuroscience-informed understanding of substance use and addiction through this three-course continuing education series designed for social work clinicians and related behavioral health professionals.
The series approaches addiction from multiple levels of analysis - beginning with its prevalence, societal impact, and ethical dimensions; examining how experience produces lasting changes in the brain through neuroplasticity; and culminating in an in-depth exploration of the neural systems and biological mechanisms underlying addiction.
Together, the courses connect population-level, clinical, and neurobiological perspectives to help behavioral health professionals understand addiction as a complex and dynamic condition shaped by interactions among brain, behavior, experience, and environment.
Individual Courses
Addiction: Impact, Prevalence & Ethics
1 Continuing Education (CE) Ethics CE Hour
Price: $25
Available On Demand - Enroll Here
Examine substance use and addiction within their broader social and ethical context. This course integrates national prevalence data with consideration of stigma, barriers to treatment, disparities in incarceration and access to care, and the ways policy and social narratives influence both clinical practice and client experiences.
Key topics: substance use prevalence and trends • public health and community impact • stigma • barriers to treatment • incarceration • ethics • health care access & equity
Plasticity
2 Continuing Education (CE) Hours
Price: $45
Available On Demand - Enroll Here
Explore how experience changes the brain. This course examines structural, functional, and molecular mechanisms of neuroplasticity and how brain changes unfold over time - from rapid changes in neural function to longer-term structural and epigenetic adaptations. Participants consider both adaptive plasticity associated with learning, resilience, and recovery and maladaptive changes associated with trauma and addiction.
Key topics: structural, functional, and molecular plasticity • LTP and LTD • gene expression • microRNA • learning and memory • stress and environment • trauma • resilience and recovery
Neurobiology of Addiction
1.5 Continuing Education (CE) Hours
Price: $35
Available On Demand - Enroll Here
Bring these concepts together through an in-depth examination of the biological and behavioral mechanisms underlying addiction. This course explores how psychoactive substances affect reward, stress, and executive functioning systems and how repeated exposure produces lasting structural, functional, and molecular changes in the brain. Participants will connect these mechanisms to clinically important phenomena including craving, withdrawal, relapse risk, and recovery.
Key topics: addiction and the brain • reward circuitry • stress systems • executive function • neuroplasticity • acute and chronic substance effects • molecular and epigenetic mechanisms • craving • relapse and recovery
Course Instructor
Dr. Kathryn Irish, PhD, LMSW, CAADC, is an Assistant Professor of Neuroscience at Michigan State University and a Lecturer II in Social Work at the University of Michigan–Ann Arbor. She has over 15 years of clinical practice experience across a range of settings, including community mental health, private practice, methadone maintenance treatment, and the U.S. federal criminal justice system. She has also held leadership and quality-improvement roles within managed health care. Dr. Irish specializes in alcohol and drug treatment and completed her PhD in Social Work at Michigan State University with a doctoral cognate in neuroscience. Her work integrates neuroscience, behavioral health, and social work to translate complex scientific concepts into practical, evidence-informed approaches for clinicians and other helping professionals.
Register
Registration is ongoing, year round. All courses are asynchronous & self-paced, including a lecture followed by a brief quiz. In order to achieve CE credit, you must pass the quiz with at least 70%. Certificates are available instantly, upon completion of the quiz. Participants will be prompted to enter their name and license information if they would like to count the certificate for professional/clinical CE.
Content is designed for persons with diverse educational backgrounds; there are no prerequisites necessary.
Please review our policies below regarding requesting a refund or cancellation.
ACE Approval Statement
Michigan State University Neuroscience Program (2268) is approved to offer continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved as ACE providers. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. Michigan State University Neuroscience Program maintains responsibility for this course. ACE provider approval period: 6/6/2025 - 6/6/2029.
