The College of Medicine at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) brought the national spotlight to Memphis when its new Center for Addiction Science was named the nation’s first Center of Excellence in Addiction Medicine.
The center was cited by the Addiction Medicine Foundation, a national organization that accredits physician training in addiction medicine, for being the first in the country to bring together clinical care, research, education, and community outreach to address addiction and deadly substance use.
Grim statistics tell the story of addiction across Tennessee.
Eighty percent of the crimes in Tennessee have some drug-related link, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. At least 1,263 Tennesseans died from opioid overdose in 2014, and that same year, more than 1,000 babies in Tennessee were reported born with neonatal abstinence syndrome, the result of exposure to addictive drugs in the womb.
The UTHSC College of Medicine is taking a major step toward rewriting that story with the center led by Daniel Sumrok, MD, a former Green Beret and public health physician with more than four decades of knowledge in treating the devastating consequences of substance abuse.
Managed by University Clinical Health and located at 1325 Eastmoreland Avenue, the center provides clinical treatment services, including cognitive behavioral therapy, medication-assisted treatment, motivational-enhancement therapy, and 12-step program facilitation across all demographics for patients suffering from substance-related and addictive disorders.
Areas of expertise include alcohol, heroin and prescription opioids, benzodiazepines and other sedatives, cocaine and amphetamines, as well as behavioral addictions, including gambling and sex. It also trains physicians and medical students to offer alternative forms of pain therapy to avoid over-prescription of opioids.
Multidisciplinary research is underway, with particular focus on neonatal abstinence syndrome.
“Addiction is an equal-opportunity illness,” Dr. Sumrok said. “It does not discriminate. Anyone can become addicted to painkillers, and we are doing our part to reduce that dependency rate.”
