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Community gathers to address addiction |
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Friday, 29 February 2008 |
 A packed audience was on hand Tuesday as Inyo County Superior Court Presiding Judge Dean Stout (above at podium) delivered opening remarks ahead of an appearance by a nationally recognized expert on drug addiction, Dr. Alex Stalcup, M.D. The well-attended two-hour presentation was held at the Church of the Nazarene in Bishop. Photo by Ken Koerner By Ken Koerner
Register Staff 2-28-2008
Substance abuse and addiction is now considered by experts in the field to be among the most treatable of health problems; but that isn’t to suggest they feel such treatment is simple or even widely understood and applied.
That was the message delivered locally to a crowded audience of health professionals, educators and interested members of the public during a lecture by the New Leaf Treatment Center’s medical director, Dr. Alex Stalcup, M.D.
Speaking on Tuesday morning, Stalcup referenced his years of work in the field to acquaint those in attendance with the hands-on nature of his experience working with addicts and addiction. The two-hour presentation, held at the Church of the Nazarene in Bishop, saw every available seat filled.
Stalcup has a medical pedigree that spans multiple pages. A graduate of the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, Stalcup built a successful practice in the field of pediatrics. Early on though, Stalcup explained, he found himself drawn toward seeking solutions to what he identifies as “the disease of addiction.”
Leaving a staff position amid the “Ivy League environs” of Columbia University’s medical facility in New York City, Stalcup headed back to San Francisco and began working daily with the numerous addicts coming into the long-famous Haight-Ashbury Free Clinic.
“After that first year of working as the medical director for Drug Treatment and Detoxification at the (Haight-Ashbury) Free Clinic, I was feeling devastated,” Stalcup said. “The overwhelming majority of addicts we were seeing had failed to either get off drugs at all or had only managed to stay clean for a short period of time.”
His determination to produce better results led Stalcup to the cutting edge of medical diagnostic technology, as well as to the latest research in the behavioral aspects of addiction. It also led him to an awareness of the relatively limited exposure many medical practitioners had to this information.
“The purpose of my lecture this morning is to open your mind to an entirely new approach to the treatment of addiction,” said Stalcup. “In the beginning of my work in this field, I, myself, didn’t see addiction as a disease. I was angry with the addicts I was seeing for not getting better. I didn’t like them – I thought of them as weak.” Then, Stalcup explained, “the physician part of me recognized there was more to the mechanics of addiction than ‘will-power or character’ and I just disappeared into the library to acquaint myself with addiction advocacy. And that’s when I learned to separate the disease from the person.”
Stalcup explained that his research was also leading him back toward the area in which he had begun his work as a doctor. “Addictions begin in a pediatric stage,” said Stalcup. “I can look at a number of significant predictors in children and see which individuals are likely to encounter significant problems with addiction later in their lives.”
The available data, Stalcup explained, is helping health professionals to better assess an individual’s risk of becoming an addict. “Common ‘risk pools’ that indicate early intervention is critical are fairly easy to detect,” Stalcup said. “Genetic pre-disposition is a major risk factor for future addiction. If a child has parents and grandparents that suffered with addictions, that child is at greater risk. Sexually abused children are another high-risk group – 70 to 90 percent of the females in California prisons were abused as children and end up addicted to alcohol and drugs. The third largest risk group are those individuals that experience significant depression or anxiety. Nine out of 10 addicts can be predicted from those three groups.”
Stalcup also shared data and CT scan images with the audience that attested to the chemical changes occurring in the brain chemistry of addicts. “The alterations that occur in brain chemistry with addiction are so pronounced,” Stalcup said, “that the addicts actually lose their ability to think about such things as consequences – and that is a key part of the disease process of addiction that keeps them engaging in high-risk behaviors.”
Commenting on the significant difference various drugs can have on a person, Stalcup addressed the growing epidemic of methamphetamine abuse. “The impact of meth on the abuser is so rapid and so pronounced that it can actually result in meth addicts dying before they really have come to grips with what hit them” said Stalcup. “Someone coming off a meth-run has maybe only three percent of functioning pleasure receptors left active in their brain … this leaves them feeling not just ‘low’ but feeling ‘really bad’ and that will lead them to re-use no matter what punishment or problems that can bring about.”
These massive shifts in brain function, explained Stalcup, are what makes the recovery from addiction such a complex and difficult process. “Consider that science has shown that the time frame for a tobacco user to break the cycle of their addiction, in terms of no longer having the craving to use tobacco, is about six weeks; for alcohol it can be as long as 18 months; for a meth addict that craving can be there for 6-8 years.”
Following his symposium, Stalcup was approached by many of those that had been present to offer their thanks for his work and for his appearance that morning. However, this was not the doctor’s only outreach during his time in Bishop.
The night preceding his lecture, invited medical professionals had spent time with Stalcup to learn in greater detail about his work with addiction and his recommendations for how to best put that acquired knowledge into practice with those in Inyo County needing such help. Following the morning’s lecture, Stalcup was headed to another get-together with health practitioners at a session to be held at Northern Inyo Hospital.
In opening remarks delivered ahead of Stalcup’s lecture, Inyo County Superior Court Judge Dean Stout thanked Northern Inyo Hospital and Chief Administrator John Halfen “for their vision and their generosity” in helping to make the event possible.
Among the things Stalcup described as “positives” in terms of how Inyo County is dealing effectively with addiction, is the Inyo Drug Court that Stout was instrumental in launching in March, 2005. “The Inyo County Drug Court has an excellent reputation in both medical and law enforcement circles around the state,” Stalcup said. “That option for having addicts deal with the the legal problems that come along with their high-risk and criminal behavior is a huge plus in turning those lives in a more productive direction. The drug court concept has led to addicts doing twice as well in getting clean and staying clean as those going through the traditional justice system.”
In commenting on areas related to dealing with the problems of addiction that Inyo County should look to strengthen, Stalcup said, “One of the missing pieces in Inyo County is treatment for withdrawal, particularly with prescription drugs such as painkillers. That can be dangerous and we have the medical technology to help people manage the extreme discomfort of their withdrawal.
“The second problem I think Inyo’s facing is too few services for treating addicts that have mental health problems,” Stalcup added. “In many cases when these addicts attempt to stay away from drug abuse the symptoms of their mental problems become more pronounced. Without treatment for their mental health disorders they can’t recover – and now there are medications that can make it possible for them to do their best.”
Stalcup also noted that Inyo County needs to provide positive outlets for its youth. “There are not enough ‘sober activities’ for teens in rural areas, especially for those in the 18- to 20-year-old age range,” he said. “If there’s a way for that to be addressed, it could go a long way toward preventing addictions from gaining a foothold with young people in the community.”
For anyone wishing to learn more about Dr. Alex Stalcup and his work with addiction, or to seek treatment, they can contact the New Leaf Treatment Center, 251 Lafayette Circle, Suite 150, Lafayette, CA 94549; call (925) 284-5200; or visit the center’s Web site at: www.nltc.com
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Last Updated ( Monday, 31 March 2008 )
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