Hythiam Announces First Licensee in Chicago; The Millennium Center to Treat Substance Dependent Patients at Outpatient Treatment Facility.

LOS ANGELES -- Hythiam, Inc. (NASDAQ:HYTM), a healthcare services management company that licenses the PROMETA(TM) treatment protocols designed to treat alcohol, methamphetamine and cocaine dependence, announced today that its PROMETA protocols have been licensed for use at the first Chicago area licensee, The Millennium Center, LLC, located across the street from the city's famed Millennium Park. The Millennium Center was founded by Gail Basch, MD, and Ann Foster, who is also the founder of the Millennium Counseling Center, one of Chicago's leading counseling centers for addiction.

"Hythiam continues its expansion into key metropolitan areas, and we are pleased to have the Millennium Center become our first Chicago area licensee," said Terren Peizer, Hythiam's Chairman and CEO. "The Millennium Center should provide synergy and greatly assist with capacity constraints that arise from using a psychosocial, behavioral only approach as is currently the case with Millennium Counseling. Utilizing PROMETA, which integrates the psychosocial with the physiological, as a tool with which to address the multi-factorial aspects of this disease should allow Dr. Basch and Ann Foster to impact a greater number of patients. We look forward to partnering with them to bring PROMETA to the greater Chicago area."

"Since addiction is a complicated disease with biological, environmental, and psychological aspects, we are thrilled to now have a treatment that approaches substance dependence in a holistic way," said The Millennium Center's, LLC, co-founder and chief operating officer, Ann Foster, MTS, LCPC, CADC, CSAT. "Almost 100% of our patients are poly-addicted, and we are looking forward to using PROMETA with these tough to treat patients."

Ann Foster is the founder and executive director of Millennium Counseling Center, and has more than ten years of clinical experience and over twenty years of personal experience in the field of recovery. Her practice consists of individual and group counseling, with a specialty in experiential therapy techniques. Foster was one of the first 400 clinicians in the U.S. to be nationally certified in sex addiction treatment and she currently serves as a member of the CSAT Advisory Board.

A licensed clinical professional counselor, a state-certified alcohol and drug counselor, and a nationally-certified counselor and sex addiction therapist, Foster is also EMDR-trained. She earned her master's degree in Human Services/Counseling from National-Louis University and a master's degree in theology from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminar at Northwestern University.

"With daily advances in understanding the biology and psychology of addiction, both patients and caregivers can now grasp addiction as a medically treatable disease," said Dr. Basch. "We are working for the day when the addicted patient can seek office-based treatment with multiple options including greater accessibility and affordability to needed care. We see PROMETA as a part of that not-so-distant future."

An experienced psychiatrist with an addiction medicine subspecialty, Dr. Basch uses her wealth of experience and training to help treat patients with various addictions. Currently the medical director at the Rush Day Hospital at Rush-Presbyterian St. Luke's, one of the most highly selective academic medical centers in the country, Dr. Basch has extensive clinical experience, including private psychotherapy practice, community psychiatry, and participation as a research psychiatrist in phase II-IV clinical trials at the Midwest Center for Neurobehaviorial Medicine. She currently holds a faculty position at Rush-Presbyterian St. Luke's Medical Center. Dr. Basch also previously served as the consulting psychiatrist to New Hope Recovery Center in Chicago, Illinois.

Dr. Basch earned her medical degree from the University of Health Sciences, Chicago Medical School, and her bachelor of science degree from Loyola University in Chicago, where she graduated cum laude. She is board certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, and received a specialty certification from the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM).

About PROMETA(TM)

Hythiam's PROMETA(TM) treatment protocols are designed for use by healthcare providers seeking to treat individuals diagnosed with dependencies to alcohol, cocaine or methamphetamine, as well as combinations of these drugs. The PROMETA treatment protocols comprise nutritional supplements, FDA-approved oral and IV medications used off-label and separately administered in a unique dosing algorithm, as well as psychosocial or other recovery-oriented therapy chosen by the patient and his or her treatment provider. As a result, PROMETA represents an innovative approach to managing alcohol, cocaine, or methamphetamine dependence that is designed to address physiological, nutritional, and psychosocial aspects of the disease, and is thereby intended to offer patients an opportunity to achieve sustained recovery. To learn more, please visit www.prometainfo.com.

About Hythiam, Inc.

Hythiam(R) is a healthcare services management company focused on delivering solutions for those suffering from alcoholism and other substance dependencies. Hythiam researches, develops, licenses and commercializes innovative physiological, nutritional, and behavioral treatment protocols that seek to address substance dependence. Additionally, Hythiam provides proprietary administrative services to assist physicians and facilities with staff education, training, marketing and outreach support, and outcomes tracking for data analysis. For further information, please visit www.hythiam.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Except for statements of historical fact, the matters discussed in this press release are forward looking and made pursuant to the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements reflect numerous assumptions and involve a variety of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the company's control that may cause actual results to differ materially from stated expectations. These risk factors include, among others, limited operating history and lack of statistically significant formal research studies, the risk that treatment protocols might not be effective, difficulty in developing, exploiting and protecting proprietary technologies, intense competition and substantial regulation in the healthcare industry; and additional risks factors as discussed in the reports filed by the company with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which are available on its website at http://www.sec.gov.