Doctor's Testimonials
Matthew Torrington, M.D.
The PROMETA Treatment Program represents a promising new treatment that has inspired me to dream of a world where craving is neutralized and individuals do not die from the self administration of poison against their own will.
As a research doctor, I am always interested in learning about new treatments and therapies. In 2004 my research mentor, Dr. Walter Ling, was approached to do a randomized, double-blind clinical study on the Proemta Treatment Program for the treatment of methamphetamine dependence. At that time, I was working on government-funded outpatient trials of new medications for methamphetamine dependence. Despite the fact that I did not know which patients were getting active medicine and which were getting placebo, I knew that the medications being tested were not helping my suffering patients enough.
I accompanied Dr. Ling to observe a patient being treated with the PROMETA Treatment Program. The process seemed to be extremely well tolerated, and the patient I observed told me something I had never heard before, “I’m not thinking about methamphetamine anymore.”
This patient’s experience—that he had been dependent on methamphetamine for more than eight years, and was no longer even thinking about the drug—flew in the face of everything I knew about addiction treatment. I began speaking with other physicians, observing and talking to more patients, and learning as much as I could about the PROMETA Treatment Program. While Dr. Ling’s study is not yet complete, the more I have learned about the scientific rationale of the treatment process and the more clinical experience I have garnered, the more optimistic I have become about the ability of this treatment to help those who are suffering so much.
The PROMETA Treatment Program is designed to target the disease of substance dependence where it resides: in the body and in the brain. I believe that the best addiction treatment combines biologic, nutritional, and psychosocial components. Failure to address any one of these areas minimizes an individual's chance for recovery. Simply put, the best biologic intervention will never substitute for psychological and social change. However, when psychological and social interventions are maximized and patients still cannot succeed, the serious need for biologic interventions is poignantly illustrated. The biologic component of PROMETA represents an exciting new approach that offers hope to those suffering from substance dependence.
I am often asked to give examples of patients I have treated using the PROMETA Treatment Program. Having treated many patients, it has become very easy to relate stories of positive change. While I know that every patient’s results will vary, I am excited and optimistic by what I have seen, and I am fascinated by patients’ reports of dramatically reduced or eliminated cravings for drugs and alcohol after PROMETA. I believe the PROMETA Treatment Program represents a new and exciting approach to the treatment of substance dependence that offers hope to those suffering from alcohol, cocaine, and methamphetamine dependence.
Recently, I told a female colleague about one patient in particular. This man was in his mid-30s, had been using meth for 10 years, and had been to five treatment centers, yet continued to relapse. After I treated the patient with PROMETA, he informed me that he was not thinking about drugs, he was eating better, sleeping better, and doing better all around. My colleague seemed to be listening to what I was telling her, but she remained guarded and skeptical.
Later that day, we saw the patient together. He told us that he had slept well the night before, was eating normally again, and was not thinking about methamphetamine anymore. This was the same news I had heard the previous day, and it did not really affect me. My colleague, however, having listened to him tell his story was on the verge of tears. What she told me later was that, even though I had told her other success stories—including this man’s—hearing it from the patient in his own words made it real for her. She told me that she now understood how important this treatment could be for her as a treating physician and to her patients who struggle with substance dependence.
The experience she described was not dissimilar to my own initial experience. For both of us, it was hearing directly from individuals being treated as they described the difference they felt being free from their craving for drugs. Many of my patients proudly report to me that situations that may once have enticed them to the point of relapse no longer pull them back in. They tell me, “I don’t have that conversation I used to have with myself, that I can do it just this one time.”
This is quite significant, and also leads to another important aspect of the successful treatment of drug dependence. It has been my experience that even when a medical intervention is used successfully, the maintenance of abstinence is predicted more on the patient’s ability to implement psychological and social changes that may lessen the chances of relapse. A patient healing from substance dependence is always recovering, and therefore needs to establish a life that includes ongoing psychosocial support. Whether it is group therapy, individual therapy, a 12-step program, or another source of support, to maintain sobriety there must be an ongoing and accessible environment of understanding and caring.
I feel that we are at an exciting and promising stage in the history of addiction treatment. Addiction is a biologic, psychological, and social problem that requires biologic, psychological, and social interventions. The PROMETA Treatment Program represents a promising new treatment that has inspired me to dream of a world where craving is neutralized and individuals do not die from the self administration of poison against their own will.
Matthew Torrington, M.D.
The PROMETA CenterTM
Santa Monica, CA
Gary R. Cohan, M.D., F.A.C.P.
The urgency of the meth epidemic necessitates a more open-minded approach to treatment so that patients in dire need can get treatment while the clinical studies utilizing the PROMETA Treatment Program are being completed.
After years of witnessing my friends and patients being devastated by the methamphetamine epidemic, losing their health, their careers, their fortunes, and their families with a frightening lack of insight and a paucity of treatment options, I decided to become a PROMETA® licensee. With horror, I observed people who were previously HIV-negative suddenly abandon safer sex practices because of the disinhibition brought about by crystal meth and eventually become HIV-positive. On a personal level, my best friend succumbed to crystal meth addiction four years ago, and I was simultaneously heartbroken and determined to do something to prevent others from falling victim to the same fate.
When Hythiam approached me to represent the PROMETA Treatment Program to the gay community in my role as an openly-gay physician-leader, HIV expert, lecturer, writer, and community advocate, I was skeptical of the PROMETA Treatment Program, primarily because of the lack of published clinical data regarding its safety and efficacy. In fact, some prominent figures in the gay medical and political communities prejudicially dismissed PROMETA before they even took the time to learn what the protocols are all about. I found their attitudes to be hypocritical and irresponsible because we in the gay medical community have had a long and honorable history of exploring many unproven therapies during the HIV/AIDS epidemic (many of which ultimately failed) and we had no moral opposition to doing so during those years because our friends and patients were in imminent danger.
The urgency of the meth epidemic necessitates a more open-minded approach to treatment so that patients in dire need can get treatment while the clinical studies utilizing the PROMETA Treatment Program are being completed.
I have been quite pleasantly surprised by the results I have seen with PROMETA in my patients. The group of patients I selected for the initial treatments were my most difficult cases. They had proven to be refractory to multiple previous attempts at recovery via traditional methods over the course of many years. To our mutual delight, these patients are now reporting diminished or absent meth cravings and an improvement in mental clarity. This is especially important because they are now able to participate in the psychosocial components of the protocols. Taking full advantage of the cognitive-behavioral therapies and 12-step programs that are integral to the PROMETA Treatment Program, these patients are now able to make substantial progress toward long-term sobriety where they had previously failed.
I am optimistic that the patients I have treated so far will continue to benefit greatly from PROMETA. I will prospectively track their progress: both for their benefit and for the benefit of those patients I will be treating in the future utilizing the PROMETA Treatment Program.
Treating addiction/dependence as a neurochemical brain disorder is an important paradigm shift in addiction medicine that will vastly improve our chances for long-term treatment successes. I believe that the impact of this change in understanding will be enormously positive.
It is difficult to witness patients struggle with their addiction and suffer the physical and emotional pain of relapse. Those of us in primary care medicine who treat patients with chemical dependencies are desperate for effective innovations. By sharing first-hand our clinical experiences utilizing these novel treatments with our fellow clinicians, others may find hope for treatment of even the most refractory cases. I will definitely recommend the PROMETA Treatment Program to my patients, friends, and colleagues as a first-line course of treatment.
Gary R. Cohan, M.D., F.A.C.P.
Beverly Hills, CA
