Document text
OHSU will set up new drug treatment A federal grant allows people who are addicted to seek help from private physicians or centers By BILL KETTLER Mail Tribune A new federal grant will allow people suffering from drug addiction to seek treatment from private physicians as well as drug-treatment centers. Oregon Health and Science University will implement the innovative treatment program in eight southwestern Oregon counties, including Jackson and Josephine, with a $128,000 grant from the federal Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. The program targets about 3,200 people who are addicted to illegal drugs such as heroin and legal substances such as oxycodone, said Steve Gallon, an OHSU psychologist who directs the university's Addiction Technology Transfer Center. Gallon said addiction treatment traditionally has focused on dispensing methadone at government-run drug-treatment centers. The new program will allow a select number of physicians to dispense a promising new anti-addiction drug called buprenorphine. Methadone eliminates the craving for opiates but still allows people who take it to experience a narcotic high by using other drugs. Buprenorphine occupies the opiate receptors in the brain, preventing those who take it from experiencing narcotic intoxication. "It's a safer drug than methadone," Gallon said. "Withdrawal is not as severe. There's not as many side effects. It's less dangerous, and it's harder to overdose." Gallon hopes to recruit a cadre of physicians in each county who will dispense buprenorphine to local patients. He noted that an addict in, say, Coos Bay, would have to travel to Eugene or Medford daily to receive methadone. The distance to treatment centers virtually assures that addicts in rural counties won't seek treatment. Gallon said researchers have identified about 1,100 addicts in Coos, Curry, Deschutes, Douglas and Klamath counties and some 2,150 in Jackson, Josephine and Lane counties. Barely 4 percent of those in the first five counties were admitted to treatment at traditional methadone clinics between 1999 and 2001. In the other three counties, where the clinics were closer to home, more than 28 percent of the addicts sought treatment during the same period. "If we make the service available locally," he said, "then more people with opiate dependency will receive care." Gallon said buprenorphine offers several advantages for addicts who want to quit. Obtaining the drug through a doctor, for example, may make some people feel more involved in their treatment than visiting a government-run drug treatment center. "I think people will like the enhanced anonymity," Gallon said. "They'll be going to the doctor just like any other patient." The new drug also may give patients a greater sense of freedom because, unlike methadone, it need not be taken daily. "People who want to hold down a normal lifestyle can do it (with buprenorphine)," he said. Gallon will organize a two-day "state of the science" workshop for physicians who want to know more about treating addictions. Physicians who attend will get training in how to dispense buprenorphine. "We want to recruit physicians who want to know how to treat opiate addiction in their offices," he said. "We're hoping to see a handful of interested physicians from each county. If we get more, that's all the better." The grant is one of just three awarded by the federal Center for Substance Abuse. Projects in Connecticut and Maine received the other two grants. Reach reporter Bill Kettler at 776-4492, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.