America has an addiction problem. Addiction is a complex disease that alters the lives of athletes, physicians, celebrities and everyday people. Anyone who knows an addict, from family to friends to co-workers, is affected. It is not a disease that is easy to understand and can include illicit drugs, prescription drugs, tobacco, alcohol or food. Drug use and abuse (including tobacco) is the nation's number-one untreated health problem, responsible for more than 50 percent of the deaths in the United States this year, according to the Center for Disease Control and the American Medical Association/JAMA. Deaths that are, for the most part, preventable.

The common denominator, in almost every instance of addiction, is the hijacking of the brain. Thus, while first use is voluntary, addiction is considered a brain disease.

Biological, psychological, environmental and socio-cultural influences and genetic predisposition may all contribute to an addiction. Other factors may include stress, boredom, previous substance use, second-hand exposure and, of course, access. Any or all of these create problems for an addict: loss of choices, narrowing of focus on feeding the habit to the detriment of nearly every facet of life and continued, compulsive use until disease or death. Or entering recovery.

Research Is the Foundation of Discovery.

Basic and clinical addiction research at the University of Florida's McKnight Brain Institute (MBI) is groundbreaking in the areas of drugs of abuse, drug effects on the brain and behavior and addiction as a disease. The UF Department of Psychiatry's Addiction Research Group has basic and clinical research labs at the MBI and at the university's Proteomic, NanoMedicine and Genetics facilities. The group also works with top addiction research groups at Yale University, Princeton University, Washington University and the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

In the early '90s, UF addiction experts proposed the idea that anesthesiologists were over-represented among addicted physicians, due to factors common to addicts, but also because of second-hand exposure. This exposure could occur from exposure to active drugs in the operating room and on surfaces or through skin absorption and breathing (despite surgical masks).

This new hypothesis helped UF scientists focus their research in the hospital workplace and the special problems of physicians and others in healthcare. Many aspects of UF's Florida Recovery Center (FRC) program reflect past and ongoing work with physician addicts. In fact, this group demonstrated that the FRC's treatment protocol works; 80 percent are drug-free and back at work at five-year, follow-up re-evaluations. This is evidence that addiction treatment works and should give hope to anyone with an addiction and the willingness to be in a rigorous treatment program like the FRC.

 Recovery Begins in Research.

“Basic and clinical addiction research at UF is so successful because of our dedicated and well-funded scientists as well as the teamwork and spirit that comes from working to improve our understanding of the disease, treatment and recovery," said Mark Gold, M.D., UF Psychiatry Department Chair and Distinguished Professor. "Our large group of prominent researchers have decades of experience and focus on hypothesis-driven and translational research, connecting the clinical questions and problems and stimulating leading-edge research."

"Research provides the new treatments and approaches," Scott Teitelbaum, M.D., said. "Additional research tests the treatments and makes them evidence-based, rather than one expert's idea. We are always thinking about the brain and its mechanisms.

"Additionally, we discovered new treatments to make detoxification easier. By itself detoxification is not treatment. Clean air; avoiding smoking, smoked drugs or alcohol; vigorous exercise, healthy eating and diet; and rigorous, long-term treatment, including peer recovery groups, follow from our work at the MBI and provide much of the evidence for the FRC's successful program and outcomes."

The Addiction Medicine at UF program and the FRC was started by Gold in 1990. Now, the FRC's faculty is led by Teitelbaum, the medical director, and delivers a full range of best-available drug abuse evaluation and treatment services.

"As clinicians, Drs. Teitelbaum, Greene, Logan and Dizney are the reason that the FRC is so well known for alcohol, drug and addiction evaluation and treatment. Their determined work and integration of research discoveries has led to FRC program changes that improve treatment and recovery rates," Gold said.

Today, the FRC has one of the largest academic faculties in the United States, including M.D.s, Ph.D.s., counselors and others dedicated to recovery of the patient and family. Interestingly, the Center has a large number of recovering faculty and staff, whose personal, past experiences help patients understand why it is necessary to put drug use permanently behind them.

Hope Has a New Facility.

The FRC offers comprehensive screening and evaluation of patients with substance abuse disorders and treats patients of all ages. As one of the only academic, university or college-of-medicine-based programs, the center is a leading choice for the treatment of business and medical professionals struggling with drug or alcohol problems, offering specialized recovery groups to focus on their unique needs. The FRC has successfully treated hundreds of these professionals, allowing them to get their careers and lives back on track.

"Unfortunately, the demand for our services is growing. As one of the best clinical programs in the nation, we trained and added new MD experts and simply grew out of the space. Again," Teitelbaum said. "With the opening of Springhill, our intensive outpatient program now has the space to deliver treatment to more addicts and their families. Our patients learn to repair a life and rebuild a family destroyed by addiction and dishonesty by creating a solid recovery foundation built on the principles of the 12 Steps in combination with exercise, diet, meditation and life planning.”

"We are helping people understand that they have a disease and how that disease has changed them and their families. But most importantly, our work shows that there is hope, and though there is no such thing as a ‘full recovery,’ the numbers show our treatment works – more than 80 percent of our patients are drug-free and back at work at one- and five-year follow-up intervals," said addiction treatment expert Daniel Logan, M.D. "Without hope, recovery never begins because it is an intense and daunting process filled with shame and stigma.

"Recently, we showed that long-term treatment works but also challenged the long-held assumptions behind short-term treatment. To us, addiction and dependence are more like head trauma than strep throat or even depression. Long-term treatment, treatment that looks more like what goes on for a brain injury, or neurological recovery, may be incorporated more and more into our program."

"Springhill complements our pioneering research efforts at the McKnight Brain Institute and Health Science Center and enables us to grow at a convenient, readily accessible community location. This space enables new programs to develop and expand, like Drs. Dizney (eating disorders & obesity), Greer and Herkov (aging; dual and boundary disorders), and our faculty's important clinical research, such as Drs. Tucker and Lewis (Autism and developmental disabilities), Nixon (alcohol and tobacco research) and Merlo (eating disorders; overeating research)," Teitelbaum said.

At Springhill, physicians and staff are now closer to the experts in child and adolescent psychiatry, an arrangement that is helpful for patients of all programs. Springhill is also essential for training medical students, residents and Fellows in addiction medicine. During the past decade, more than 40 physicians have been trained in addiction medicine or addiction psychiatry at UF.

UF faculty at Springhill will provide child and adolescent psychiatry, adult psychiatry, chronic pain, an eating disorders program and forensic psychiatric services.

For more information on UF clinical services at Springhill, including intensive outpatient day, night and weekend programs at Springhill, please call 352-265-5404 or visit http://springhill.health.ufl.edu/. For specific program inquiries, call:


    Pain Evaluation and Treatment: John Bailey, M.D., 265-5404
    Florida Recovery Center: Scott Teitelbaum, M.D., 265-5500
    Dual Disorders: William Greene, M.D., 265-5404
    Addiction Evaluation and Treatment: Daniel Logan, M.D., 265-5404
    Eating Disorder: Elizabeth Dizney, Ph.D., 265-8233
    Aging & Geriatric Psychiatry: Richard Greer, M.D., 265-5500
    Autism, OCD, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry: Daniel Tucker, M.D. 265-5404
    Young-Adult and College-Age Psychiatry: Kimberly White, M.D., 265-5404
    Clinical Trials: Teri Pigott, M.D., 265-5450
    Depression and Brain Stimulation: Lou Solomon, M.D., 265-5404
    Forensic Institute: Tonia Werner, MD., 265-3284
    Forensic Psychology: Michael Herkov, Ph.D., 265-3284
    Adult Psychiatry: Richard Holbert, M.D., 265-5404

For more information on the Florida Recovery Center, visit www.shands.org and search “Florida Recovery Center”.

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