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Hanley Center Launches Substance Abuse Treatment Outcome Research Project

Posted on: Wednesday, 17 September 2008, 09:01 CDT

Hanley Center, a premiere alcohol and chemical dependency treatment facility in West Palm Beach, Florida, has announced a five-year collaborative Substance Abuse Treatment Outcome research project to define and answer major questions about the disease of addiction, treatment and recovery.

Defining recovery and associated outcomes, evaluating treatment and developing promising protocols for effective treatment of alcohol and drug dependency are at the heart of the research project. The Substance Abuse Treatment Outcome partners are Hanley Center, the University of Miami's Miller School of Medicine and its Comprehensive Drug Research Center; epidemiologist, Dr. Karen Dodge of the Palm Beach County Public Health Department; researchers from the Scripps Research Institute's Jupiter, Florida Campus, and Florida International University in Miami.

"In this groundbreaking research, we are combining the science of neurobiology research with clinical experience at Hanley Center," said Dr. Barbara Krantz, Hanley's CEO and Medical Director. "Two of the most intriguing areas of our research include the influence of hormonal shifts on treatment success and how we address chronic pain as a co-occurring condition with substance abuse. We are evaluating current treatment provided at the Center, including specific interventions for older adults and gender-specific treatments."

"We will be able to both diagnose the presence of addiction and predictability of relapse through evaluation of certain hormone and neuropeptide biomarkers," said Dr. Karen Dodge. "We believe this will greatly support recovery efforts for individuals, especially during their first year of recovery after treatment."

"Both medicine and addiction treatment are moving towards more evidence-based practice, so that we can determine what interventions work best for whom and under what conditions," said Dr. Krantz. "We need a unified definition of recovery that is the sum of both neurobiology research and clinical experience. At Hanley, we consider the following domains in recovery: bio-medical, biomarkers; psychiatric; psychological (cognitive); emotional; social and spiritual. The outcomes will help us offer patients identifiable goals in recovery."

According to Dr. Krantz, the project will also help to identify promising new areas of research and could synergistically affect regional and national policy, because addictive disorders have devastating health and financial consequences.

Hanley Center offers premiere gender and age specific treatment for men and women as well as family and adolescent programs. For more information call (561) 841-1000, 1-800-444-7008 or visit www.hanleycenter.org.

Source: Business Wire

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