Addiction Medicine Services
Pioneers in Rehabilitation and Recovery
Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic is a world leader in the diagnosis and treatment of addiction disorders. The hospital is the clinical partner of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry, one of the world’s most respected research programs and, for many years now, the country’s top recipient of research funds from the National Institutes of Health. Western Psychiatric collaborates closely with the department to transform that outstanding research into evidence-based clinical care.
In 1988, Western Psychiatric was one of the first centers in the United States to offer comprehensive treatment to people with both substance use and psychiatric disorders, called dual disorders. Today, Western Psychiatric offers a complete range of addiction medicine services, from inpatient dual disorder services for adults, to day programs for adolescents, to community-based outpatient services for women who are coping with both an addiction and pregnancy or parenthood.
Addiction Medicine Services of Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic of UPMC is committed to providing comprehensive addiction and dual diagnosis treatment, prevention, education, and research programs that are patient-oriented, research-based, and recovery-focused. The dedicated staff and faculty seek to engage individuals and families through motivational, culturally competent, goal-focused treatment, in compassionate, caring environments at accessible community locations. Recovery is fostered and promoted through the establishment of a healing partnership that addresses the biological, psychosocial, and spiritual aspects of addiction.
- Addiction is a chronic illness with biological, psychosocial, and spiritual components. Recovery is a process of abstinence and change.
- No single treatment or approach is appropriate for all individuals. Matching treatment services to each individual’s particular problems and needs is critical to his or her ultimate success in returning to productive functioning in the family, workplace, and society.
- Treatment is designed on the principles of dignity and respect and aims to engage clients in a recovery partnership emphasizing the importance of self-management and empowerment.
- Recognizing that addicted individuals with co-existing psychiatric disorders should have both disorders treated in a coordinated manner, we were one of the first centers in the United States to offer integrated treatment. A full continuum of care with an array of treatment resources are offered in a variety of locations to provide freedom of choice and easy access for individuals, families, and communities.
- We are committed to incorporating the latest research findings to provide the most effective, research-based treatments. Our faculty conduct clinical trials funded by the National Institutes of Health that are aimed at helping to identify effective treatments for addiction and dual disorders.
- Education about illness, treatment, relapse prevention, and recovery empowers individuals and their families. Our faculty and staff have created and disseminated many materials to aid in the recovery of clients and families.
- We are committed to teaching professionals, psychiatric residents, medical students, and graduate students in the behavioral sciences. Faculty and staff conduct numerous lectures, training workshops, and conference presentations. Clinical rotations are provided at many of our programs.
Our many levels of treatment, from inpatient hospital care to outpatient therapy, allow people to move from one level of support to another depending upon their individual needs and rates of recovery.
- Detoxification programs for adolescents and adults, both hospital-based and outpatient, help people who need medical management of withdrawal complications along with critical psychosocial support.
- Inpatient hospitalization for patients with addictions and co-occurring psychiatric disorders provides close monitoring and intensive individual, group, and family therapies, in addition to pharmacotherapy.
- Following discharge from the hospital, all patients are referred for ongoing care, usually to another of our programs.
- Residential rehabilitation helps people achieve a stable state from which to go on to a less intensive level of care.
- Partial hospitalization treatment offers a supportive environment of highly structured time four to five days per week for up to 20 hours per week. The program provides individual, family, and group therapies, and medication management.
- Intensive outpatient treatment for adolescents and adults provides programming three days per week, up to 10 hours per week, for people who are able to participate in work or school, but who also require the structure of a morning, afternoon, or evening program to promote recovery.
- Outpatient treatment for adolescents and adults offers individual, group, and family therapy, along with medication management. Those in need of maintenance therapy can return as needed for medications and supportive therapy.
- Maintenance treatments for opioid addiction, including an intensive outpatient program that helps people new to the maintenance treatment become engaged with and dedicated to the program.
- Programs for special populations (pregnant, addicted women; criminal offenders; adolescents with substance use and co-occurring psychiatric disorders)
- Prevention, training, and school-based education and intervention
- Counseling for adolescents and adults for driving under the influence
- Smoking cessation counseling
Our experts can help institutes and agencies develop or manage their own addiction medicine services. We can provide effective, research-based:
- detoxification protocols
- clinical protocols for treatment programs
- protocols to facilitate continuity of care and enhance treatment compliance
- clinical manuals on treatment approaches for therapists
- recovery materials for patients and families
To arrange a consultation, call 412-624-1000 or toll-free 1-877-624-4100.
Addiction Medicine Services conducts quality initiatives in order to assess services and improve care. Our recent quality initiatives include:
- examining the effects of addiction on the family and family involvement in treatment
- understanding patient perceptions of challenges of recovery from an addiction
- asking patients to rate use of interactive recovery workbooks in treatment
- using motivational strategies to improve continuity of care among chronically addicted patients
- integrating addiction interventions into medical settings
Dual disorders are a particular challenge to psychiatry. An individual grappling with addiction may not follow the treatment regimen for a co-existing disorder like bipolar or schizophrenia; An individual with untreated depression or anxiety may employ substance abuse in attempt to avoid uncomfortable emotions. Each disorder exacerbates the other and makes it harder to treat. While we conduct many research projects in addiction medicine, we are proud to have demonstrated leadership in the investigation of treatments for dual disorders. Our group recently completed a first-of-its-kind study of people with both alcoholism and bipolar disorder, which demonstrated that a pharmacologic agent can help decrease alcohol use in this population. Other studies of various populations, dual disorders, and medications are underway. In addition, we conduct clinical research on the causes, course, and treatment of addiction throughout the lifespan, from the prenatal period, through childhood and adulthood, to old age.
We are a regional research and training center for the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Clinical Trials Network. This is a partnership with treatment providers in western Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio, and West Virginia; NIDA; and 16 other centers and more than 150 other treatment providers throughout the United States.
Recent research projects include:
- Adolescent Alcohol Use Disorders: Nosology, Comorbidity, and Course
- Adolescent Psychopathology and Alcohol Use Disorders
- Adult Neurobehavioral Outcomes of Adolescent Drug Abuse
- Alcoholism Susceptibility Genes in High-Density Families
- Biological Risk Factors in Relatives of Alcoholic Women
- Child Abuse, Violence, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Early Substance Use
- Cognitive/Personality Factors in Relatives of Alcoholics
- Combined Pharmacotherapy in Depressed Alcoholics
- Course of Alcohol and Drug Problems in Treated Teens
- Diagnostic Criteria for Adolescent Alcohol Use Disorders
- Drug Addiction Transitions from Adolescence to Adulthood
- Effects of Prenatal Cocaine Use: 15-Year Follow-Up
- Fluoxetine for Major Depressive Disorder/Cannabis Disorder in Young People
- Fluoxetine-Treated Alcohol Use Disorder-Major Depressive Disorder Teens: Long-Term Outcomes
- Fluoxetine in Depressed Adolescent Alcohol Abusers
- Individual Drug Counseling and Buprenorphine along with Standard Medical Management for Prescription Opioid Dependence in Adults
- OROS Methylphenidate in Adolescents with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Substance Use Disorder
- Predicting Alcoholics’ Treatment Responses to a Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor
- Prenatal Alcohol Exposure: Cognitive and Brain Function
- Prenatal Marijuana Exposure: Long-Term Outcomes
- Psychopathology in Pharmacotherapy of Alcohol Use Disorder-Major Depressive Disorder Teens
- Quantitative Methods and Phenotyping in Alcohol Research
- Teen Tobacco Use in a Birth Cohort and Prenatal Effects
- Valproate Efficacy in Cocaine-Bipolar Comorbidity
- Welfare-to-Work: Substance Abuse and Neuropsychiatric Function
Dennis Daley, PhD
Chief
Professor of psychiatry, University of
Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Antoine Douaihy, MD
Medical director
Assistant professor of psychiatry, University of
Pittsburgh School of Medicine