Comfortably Getting Off Painkillers: The ‘Bupe’ Stepdown
November 27, 2013
Hosted by Dr. Joe Terhaar, PhD
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Guest Information
Episode Description
With tens of thousands of people dying each year in the United States from opioid (painkiller) addiction, we need to optimize every resource to help extricate people from this trap of brain chemistry. Buprenorphine has provided an additional avenue out of the trap by either supporting a comfortable stepdown to abstinence over weeks, or continued drug maintenance; both avoiding the painful and destabilizing withdrawal. With no research supporting endless maintenance, our focus today is on the comfortable stepdown process and the phenomenon known as ‘dysphoric letdown’ that can challenge this road to abstinence. With the expertise of Jim Herndon, Physician’s Assistant, we explore the comfort and effectiveness of the process.
Overcoming Addiction: Hope with Prevention, Intervention, and Treatment
Archives Available on VoiceAmerica Health and Wellness Channel
On our show we will share facts, research, experiences, and feelings to better understand how to save lives from addiction. No prevention, intervention, nor treatment approach is 100% effective, and many people die every day. By sharing our knowledge, experience, and hope we can move further forward in overcoming addiction. There are gaps between traditional addiction recovery concepts like the disease model, new technologies that many consumers are unaware of like family-centered addiction recovery, new research findings about brain chemistry of addiction and genetic vulnerabilities of addiction, and prevention technologies. Amidst all of these technologies, concepts, and emotions, there is insufficient dialogue between researchers, addicts and families, and practitioners. With Dr. Joe’s breadth of background, passion, and ability, he will facilitate an ongoing dialogue between his guests and a diversity of listeners like you, moving toward greater hope for overcoming addiction.
Dr. Joe Terhaar, PhD
Dr. Joe Terhaar is a practicing licensed mental health counselor, marriage and family therapist, and certified chemical dependency counselor with over 30 years experience in drug prevention, intervention, and treatment. He has served as an expert witness for courts litigating issues of diagnosis and family treatment practices, is a Full Member of the Association of Intervention Specialists and a Board Registered Interventionist using eight strategies in helping families. He was awarded a rare dissertation research grant to study family intervention by the National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) in 2001 contributing to the science of family intervention, is an educator and trainer of addiction professionals since 1983, and NAADAC Education Provider since 2006. He is a Washington state-approved marriage and family licensure supervisor since 2008, and author of research-grounded concepts, skills, and objectives for the articulation of family intervention granted a provisional patent in 2005. He received a Graduate Fellowship Award at Eastern Washington University in 1979, and is listed in Who's Who Among Students In American Colleges and Universities, 1976-77. He is the author of training curricula for school teachers, social workers, and drug counselors used across the U.S. from Seattle to Georgia, and trains intervention specialists from Alaska to Florida. Most importantly, Dr. Joe cares a great deal about those affected by addiction.
