Gentle LifeLube readers --- I have been corresponding with Dr. S. Alex Stalcup of the New Leaf Treatment Center regarding the Prometa protocol this morning. He has much to say, and not a bit of it is good about Prometa.
--Jim Pickett of LifeLube
Some background on Dr. Stalcup first...
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October 1, 2007
Jim,
I'm an addiction medicine specialist in the Bay Area; we've been battling the Prometa monster for a couple of years, and though I feel we are losing ground, I am writing you to offer my support for your efforts in the good fight. I was Medical Director at the Haight- Ashbury Free Clinic for years, and worked with David Smith. He bannered the Clinic with "Health Care is a Right, Not a Priviliege." He has since gone over to the Dark Side and is now the medical face of Hythiam, selling what is touted as the cure for addiction, but for the privileged few who can afford $15,000. Though a scandal in its own right, using David threatens the legitimacy of all of our efforts to define addiction as a true disease, needing treatments that have withstood the rigors of placebo-controlled, double-blind treatment. Close friends of David at UCLA have been funded to do the research, but two years into it, they have enrolled very few clients, as if they wanted to delay doing the research.
As you know by now, Prometa is a marketing scheme by the Hythiam company, not a treatment. Agents of the company (PLEASE look into the shady past of the company's founder), go into meth-affected areas, give "free" treatment to a select few, then pressure local funding agencies to use public funds to pay for Prometa treatments. In some of these "studies" there has not been any treatment offered before, so all of the attention given to the participants ensures some benefit. It is SO sad that precious pubic money is being spent on this. However, the guilt trip laid on the funding agencies has proved effective, as in the lay out of public funds in King County, mostly in their Gay and transgendered communities.
Chicago has been targeted by the Prometa people, and they laid the groundwork over the past several months. I suspect the usual: some warm testimonials, public pressure to pay for the treatment with public funds, and then they move on to another site. You lose.
As I hope you can tell, I am devastated by this development, as are many, many medical professionals in addiction treatment. For more on the debate in California, here is a copy of "Perspectives on Hythiam's Prometa Treatment for Addiction" from the fall 2006 quarterly newsletter of the California Society in Addiction Medicine.
Good luck in this fight. It is awful that Prometa has targeted a frightened and vulnerable population; certainly crystal is a scourge here in California, and is a double scourge among my gay patients. Please let me know what I can do to help, and give my regards to others willing to take this on.
Regards,
Alex
UCLA is due to release top-line data from the first randomized, double-blind placebo controlled study of the PROMETA treatment program by leading investigator Harold Urschel, M.D.
ReplyDeleteI'll wait for those results, which are apparently indeed under way, due to be released this month, and not being deliberately delayed, as the good doctor so accuses. I wonder if he could possibly cite a source for even one of his prejudicial indictments.
It appears the that doctor is so upset at his former colleague for taking a corporate job that he'll make angry statements, that are blatantly false at best, to further the "good fight".
Public funding has been provided to drug courts to run pilot programs, which, COMBINED WITH NUTRITIONAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL COUNSELING, will hopefully help offenders get out of the revolving door of jail, which does nothing to curb their addiction. And while I'll admit that private treatment is very expensive at this time, the publicly-funded Prometa treatments cost far less than $15,000 per patient. Do more research yourself, at least before you criticize those who are actually researching the drug at UCLA.
Another doctor, Gary R. Cohan, MD FACP, had this to say:
"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."
I know, you'll tell me that he's saying it only because he's dishonest, and is paid to lie. Well, you may choose to believe that, but I for one, won't judge a book by the statements of a reviewer who dislikes its author, but will wait for the results of the scientific studies. I also suspect that you'll tell me that the Mayo Clinic Proceedings Journal was dishonest, or 'publicly pressured' into publishing the results of Dr. Urschel's initial open-label study, when they stated "The study found that this component of the PROMETA(R) Treatment Program persistently reduced methamphetamine cravings and use."
As for the drug courts using public funding to pilot the treatment programs with offenders, I can think of far worse things that the government has spent public money on.