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CORRECTING and REPLACING Largest Criminal Justice Substance Abuse Treatment Provider in State of Washington's Pierce County Adopts PROMETA(TM)

Posted on: Thursday, 22 June 2006, 21:00 CDT

First bulleted subhead should begin: 92.5% of participants (sted: 93.8%). Second graph, second sentence should read: ... 92.5 percent of participants remained drug-free, while 98 percent of weekly random urine analyses tested negative for substance abuse (sted: ... 93.8 percent of participants remained drug-free, while 97 percent of weekly random urine analyses tested negative for substance abuse).

The corrected release reads:

LARGEST CRIMINAL JUSTICE SUBSTANCE ABUSE TREATMENT PROVIDER IN STATE OF WASHINGTON'S PIERCE COUNTY ADOPTS PROMETA(TM)

-- 92.5% of participants in Pierce County Alliance Pilot Program drug free following PROMETA combined with strong behavioral program

-- Results to lend support for expanded state and justice adoption

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 that Pierce County Alliance (PCA), the largest substance abuse treatment provider for criminal justice in Pierce County, Washington, currently servicing approximately 2,000 individuals, has adopted the PROMETA Protocols for treatment of both cocaine and methamphetamine dependent individuals. According to a 2005 report on drug abuse trends, Pierce County had seven times the number of per capita methamphetamine incidents than King County -- the state's most populous county.

The adoption is a result of a 40-subject, 90 day pilot program of the PROMETA treatment protocols for methamphetamine and cocaine dependence. Preliminary results showed that over the program's interim monitoring period, 92.5 percent of participants remained drug-free, while 98 percent of weekly random urine analyses tested negative for substance abuse. Of the 40 participants, 32 had methamphetamine as their primary dependence with the remaining 8 subjects dependent on cocaine. 21 were male and 19 female.

"The changes in clients who participated in the pilot program are some of the most promising results I have witnessed in my thirty years in the chemical dependency and criminal justice field. The PROMETA protocol marries physiological treatment with our existing psychosocial treatment model and has really helped us with some of our most difficult cases," said PCA's Executive Director, Terree Schmidt-Whelan, Ph.D. "The Pierce County Alliance is dedicated to providing optimal care to our clients and from what we've seen thus far, we are extremely optimistic and look forward to implementing the PROMETA protocol as a treatment option for our clients in felony and family drug court programs, as well as other criminal justice components and community referrals."

In her role as a key national commentator on the war against methamphetamine dependence, Schmidt-Whelan also responded in a recent statement to the Office of National Drug Control Policy's (ONDCP) 2006 Synthetic Drug Control Strategy, which said that based upon her program's early success, federal officials seeking to disseminate information about new treatment strategies should take a close look at the PROMETA treatment protocols for methamphetamine dependence.

PCA presented its results to an audience of drug court justices and administrators at the annual conference of the National Association of Drug Court Professionals (NADCP) yesterday afternoon in Seattle, Washington. The NADCP annual meeting hosts more than 2,500 drug court practitioners from the U.S. and abroad. Today at the NADCP annual meeting, results will also be presented from the successful drug court pilot of PROMETA on crack and cocaine dependent subjects conducted by the City Court of Gary, Indiana. Like PCA, Gary City Drug Court concluded its pilot early and moved for adoption when the results overwhelmingly surpassed their historical success rates.

Also on June 21, addiction expert and lead investigator Harold C. Urschel, III, M.D., M.M.A, presented Research Across America's (RAA) results of its study of the PROMETA treatment protocol for methamphetamine dependence at the College on Problems of Drug Dependence (CPDD) annual meeting in Scottsdale, Ariz. The CPDD's annual meeting is one of the top scientific forums in the addiction field.

The RAA study was designed to measure only the pharmacological component of PROMETA -- and did not include behavioral counseling, which is an important part of the PROMETA protocols, and an important part of any addiction treatment. The Gary, Indiana, and Pierce County pilots, which were integrated with existing behavioral therapy, showed potential for even higher abstinence rates.

"We congratulate PCA on their successful pilot results and look forward to assisting them as they provide treatment to the populations in need, and work with county, state and federal agencies and officials to expand funding for and access to PROMETA throughout the state of Washington," said Terren Peizer, Hythiam's Chairman and CEO. "Having study outcomes from Dr. Urschel, and references such as Gary City Court and PCA, will allow us to rapidly showcase to other agencies, program templates that have already factored in training, implementation, logistics and integration with adjunctive behavioral therapy programs. The result should be increased adoption or pilots towards adoption in key geographic regions among the relevant health and criminal justice agencies. Any state, county, or city facing a crisis with methamphetamine, crack, or cocaine can now look at PROMETA as a viable alternative that can be rapidly and effectively implemented."

About PROMETA(TM)

Hythiam's PROMETA 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. 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.

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, marketing and outreach support, and outcomes tracking for data analysis. For further information, please click on 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.

Source: Business Wire

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