Psychiatry and Addiction Treatment

Addiction psychiatry and medication management are often important parts of addiction treatment.

Dual diagnosis can be a factor in the recovery process and may necessitate psychiatric care. There can also be other factors where including psychiatric treatment and possibly medication will be important to your recovery process.

When dual diagnosis is a factor, working with addiction psychiatrists can be important.

Dual Diagnosis

Over half of patients diagnosed with a real substance use disorder also meet the criteria for another mental health diagnosis. This means that they have a dual diagnosis

A significant part of treatment for dual diagnosis can be the use of psychiatry and/or physician medication management.

Referrals to Psychiatrists

You may find that addressing mental health is needed as part of your treatment. If this is the case we want you to know that we are very conservative with referrals to psychiatrists. We choose carefully when collaborating with psychiatrists and physicians who prescribe medication for people struggling with alcohol or drug use.

Our approach is to work closely in collaboration with these doctors in treating our psychotherapy clients.

A Cautious Approach to Medication Use

Close to one-third of our patients at JFA may see a psychiatrist for mental health or substance abuse concerns and will receive some form of medication management during their treatment.

The psychiatrists that we refer to are ones that we trust to be particularly careful with our patients. We work with psychiatrist who are well-trained and avoid over-medicating. They’re also knowledgeable in treating underlying mental health illness in general and addictive disorders specifically.

Understanding the Differences Between Normal Side Effects and Addiction Related Issues

Overall, an addiction psychiatrist will be knowledgeable with regards to prescribing medications which are:

• non-addictive
• non-habit-forming
• won’t create additional issues, problems, or excessive side effects

This should not be confused with normal side effects which may develop as a result of taking normally prescribed medication. In fact, the term “dependence” is a normal medical term which refers to a person’ body adjusting to prescribed medication and building some tolerance and possible withdrawal.

However, it isn’t the same thing as addiction. While this can be confusing and complicated, it’s crucial to ask questions of your therapist and psychiatrist when consulting with a physician for medication management with psychotropic drugs. The addiction psychiatrists that we refer to are credentialed to be able to prescribe Suboxone, Naltrexone, and Vivitrol (which can be offered in both shot format and implant form) to aid in cravings and maintenance.

Addiction psychiatrists have recently become a more key member in traditional substance abuse treatment. Typically, they have been trained to coordinate, provide consultation, and assist in triage care with community resources, especially here in Philadelphia and the surrounding suburbs. They can be found throughout the healthcare field and in various differing specialties including, but not limited to, clinical medicine, public health, education, and research. We will gladly reach out to the psychiatrist or physician with whom you’re already currently working.

We also have several contacts with local psychiatrists in Philadelphia, Bucks, and Montgomery County and are happy to refer you to one who we believe might best meet your addiction psychiatry needs. Some are more willing to prescribe medications for ADHD or anxiety and some are more conservative with prescribing those medications. Some have tolerance for harm reduction like mild alcohol use or use of marijuana and some will not prescribe at all if people are continuing to use even “lighter” drugs of abuse. Below is a partial list of local psychiatrists we use.

One Person’s Story Using Medication to Recover

Check out this TEDx talk from the American actress and singer Claudia Christian about how she overcame alcoholism with the help of medication and psychiatric treatment.

In this talk, she also discusses the medication Naltrexone and the Sinclair method of psychiatric medication for alcoholism or Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD).