New Innovations in the Addiction Field according to Dr. Tim Fong, Director or Addiction medicine UCLA

ONE80CENTER: Dr. Fong, what do you see are the next steps in the field of addiction treatment?

Dr. Tim Fong: The addiction treatment field is a relatively new field comparative to other fields of medicine. For example, we now have several medications on the market that are helpful for people to stop using drugs or take away the symptoms of addiction, which include the urges and cravings for drugs or to help with withdrawal.We know that we have a vaccine that is likely to come to market in the next 5 years where we would give someone an injection once a month and they would develop antibodies to cocaine and not want to use cocaine. We know in the next 10 years we will have the ability to look at people’s genetic profiles and match it up to the kind of medication would be most effective for them.

On the psychotherapy side, I think we are going to see a lot more innovations in terms of technology. This would include making therapy more visual, with crafts, charts and videos to help support people in recovery understand the concept they are talking about. This could also mean 12 Step groups being available 24 hours a day using technology to have online support groups or support groups from across the nation to relate to.

We see treatments for addictions expanding not only in specialist’s hands but also, I think we will see it as primary care doctors like internists, family medicine, general psychologists providing care for addiction at a much earlier stage of the disease.