A new substance abuse center in Harford County is using drugs to treat drug addiction.
The Bel Air Center for Addictions is on the “cutting edge” in using the latest FDA-approved medications to treat patients struggling with alcohol, opiate and tobacco addiction, said Dr. Lee Tannenbaum, a family practitioner who recently opened the center on Tolgate Road.
The standard treatment for substance abuse has been behavioral therapy, he said. “A lot of people in the addiction community believe that treating the problem with medication isn?t appropriate. I?m trying to counteract that opinion.”
Coming up in the medical profession, Tannenbaum said, he was taught to tell alcoholics to go to AA and quit drinking.
“That?s like telling an asthmatic to stop breathing so poorly. Alcoholics Anonymous is absolutely the best therapy that has been out there, but it?s now 70 years old … and there is no medical treatment out there that we are presently using that is 70 years old,” he said.
Now there are medical treatments for drug addiction that have proven results, he said.
“It?s definitely the new wave of treatment,” said Ruth Maiorana, spokeswoman for the Harford County Health Department. Maiorana said the department is also using medication.
Revia and Vivitrol, for example, target receptors of the brain so alcoholics no longer find pleasure in drinking.
Campral eliminates the triggers that might cause a person to drink.
Buprenorphine prevents heroin and other opiate users from experiencing withdrawal and cravings, and even prevents the user from getting high in the event of a relapse.
Wellbutrin has been shown to curb nicotine cravings when used along with standard nicotine replacement therapy, like the nicotine patch and similar products.
“I feel like I was reborn,” said one of Tannenbaum?s patients, who said he treated her for an addiction to prescription pain medication. “No cravings. No side effects. I feel like a new person.”
