New Life Addiction Counseling Services recently announced the appointment of a new medical director: Dr. Alfred Forrester, a psychiatrist with extensive experience in addiction medicine. Dr. Forrester's primary roles at New Life are to assess and manage clients for psychiatric and substance use disorders, conduct patient chart reviews and provide medical leadership for the New Life Executive Committee. At New Life, Dr. Forrester spends most of his clinical time assessing patients, making pharmacologic
New Life announces new medical director
PLAYS A PIVOTAL ROLE
In the addiction treatment setting, Dr. Forrester says he sees the psychiatrist's role as “pivotal” in providing patient care which complements the care provided by other caregivers. “He or she is the one who integrates information from a variety of sources; the one to whom the other caregivers turn to address the interface of emotional and medical issues,” he says. The pharmacologic treatment of addiction has been advanced by several recent developments, including the introduction of buprenorphine, a prescription medication for those addicted to heroin or other opiates. Buprenorphine acts by relieving the symptoms of opiate withdrawal such as agitation, nausea and insomnia. Buprenorphine is less addictive and has a lower risk of overdose than methadone. “It's been an advance over what we had, which was methadone,” Dr. Forrester says. Using the drug to alleviate the symptoms of opiate withdrawal makes it easier to get the patient to address some of the issues in his or her recovery, while being gradually weaned from buprenorphine, he explains. “Some programs believe in buprenorphine maintenance (for inde nite periods) as opposed to our approach, which involves starting the patient on buprenorphine and gradually tapering it over the ensuing months.”
recommendations in the management of major psychiatric disorders, and
providing follow-up medication management. He also provides ongoing psychotherapy to patients, either as an adjunct to or in the absence of pharmacologic management.
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