Recognizing & Treating Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) As A Chronic Brain Disease: The Latest Research, Treatment Frameworks & Care Pathways
“Relapse is not a failure of treatment; it’s a reflection of the underlying disease process. When we understand that, we approach care very differently.” – Dr. Louai Bilal, Medical Director, Kaiser Fremont Medical Psychiatric Unit
In this fourth webinar of the 2026 RECADEMY 12-part series, Dr. Bilal speaks about the decades of neuroscience research and how it’s reshaped how we understand opioid use disorder, but how many care models have not kept pace.
OUD is not a short-term condition resolved by detoxification. It is a chronic brain disease characterized by lasting changes in reward, stress, and decision-making pathways. These changes directly impact relapse risk, treatment engagement, and long-term outcomes. For clinicians and health systems, this shift in understanding has major implications, not just for how care is delivered, but how success is defined.
Featured Speakers:
Louai Bilal, MD, MSc
Dr. Bilal is currently the Medical Director of the Kaiser Fremont MPU, Assistant Chief of Hospital Staff in KP Fremont, and interim Medical Director at Telecare Heritage Hospital. He has been an inpatient psychiatrist throughout his career and has consulted on medical floors and emergency rooms. In addition to clinical care, he has been heavily involved in postgraduate education, acting as site director for many medical student clerkships and later for Kaiser’s own psychiatric residencies in Oakland and San Jose. He is the Program Director of Psychiatric Education at the GSAA and has helped lead the efforts toward internalizing ECT service in KP SCL, expanding the use of ECT in Fremont to include inpatient ECT and court ordered treatments.
Stuart Buttlaire, Ph.D
Dr. Buttlaire is the Vice President of Clinical Excellence and Leadership at OPEN MINDS. He brings over 35 years of executive, clinical, and policy experience to OPEN MINDS. He has experience in both the public and private sectors of healthcare providing leadership and direction in healthcare delivery. His career has focused on advancing integrated behavioral health and addiction medicine through strategic innovation, system redesign, quality improvement, and sustainable policy reform.
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