Caron Foundation Program Trains Doctors to Identify Substance Abuse.

Business Editors/Health & Medical Writers

WERNERSVILLE, Pa.--(BW HealthWire)--Jan. 25, 2001

A resident training program at the Caron Foundation - one of the top three treatment centers in the country - is helping future physicians become skilled at recognizing substance abuse and at recommending treatment for patients.

Dr. James F. Mulligan, Caron Foundation (www.caron.org) medical director, believes Caron's resident training program better prepares future physicians to comfortably discuss substance abuse with addicted patients and make treatment recommendations.

A national survey of primary care doctors that appeared in the Jan. 22 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine concluded that many doctors were failing to consider drug abuse a serious medical problem and were not recommending patients to intervention programs.

Dr. Peter Friedmann, the survey's lead author and assistant professor of medicine and community health at Brown University, concluded that about one third of 1,080 surveyed doctors did not routinely ask new patients if they used illegal drugs and that about 15% did not routinely offer intervention to drug-abusing patients.

In 1999, an estimated 14.8 million Americans were dependent on either alcohol or illicit drugs.

Friedmann said the findings suggest that better drug-abuse training is needed in medical schools, and that all doctors should be trained to identify drug abuse as well as effectively treat those in recovery.

Mulligan, who noted that 20 percent of the patients who come into a primary care office have symptoms of the disease, says medical schools offer less than 10 hours of drug-abuse education, whereas Caron's resident training program provides up to 60 hours of intensive training for second-year residents in family practice programs.

The training also helps physicians work more efficiently with patients in recovery by knowing which medications to avoid prescribing so as not to conflict with their recovery. (For more information on the Caron program, contact Dr. Susan Gordon, Director of Research and Training, at 1.800.678.2332).

"Recovery rates of 60 to 70 percent are attainable for substance abusers," Mulligan says, adding that patients have the best chances for recovery if they attend a residential treatment program, followed by an intensive outpatient program and long-term treatment to include 12-step support groups.

Headquartered in Wernersville, about one hour north of Philadelphia, the Caron Foundation is a national leader in addiction treatment for adults, adolescents and their families.