Thank you for your interest in the UF&Shands Florida Recovery Center, the UF&Shands Eating Disorder Recovery Center, the University of Florida College of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry and Shands Vista, UF’s freestanding Psychiatric Hospital with inpatient programs for children, adolescents, adults and the elderly. We are pleased to launch our first Discovery to Recovery e-newsletter. We hope that in the months to come, you will find the content in this newsletter informative, helpful and inspiring. Each month we will bring you articles from our various practices, share upcoming plans for growth and expansion and keep you up to date on the latest research and treatment options for patients.

Currently, we are focused on a few particular topic areas. First, we are so pleased to have a new UF&Shands Florida Recovery Center location for pain and addiction medicine in the Orlando area. The UF&Shands Florida Recovery Center at Orlando Health will serve patients, families and all of our central Florida referral sources. Timothy Huckaby, M.D., is the medical director of FRC at Orlando Health.  He is a UF board-certified anesthesiologist who has been fellowship trained in both addiction and pain medicine. Dr. Huckaby recently moved to Orlando to evaluate and treat patients for a variety of pain and/or addiction related diagnosis at Orlando Health. In Gainesville at UF&Shands Pain Medicine at Springhill, Gary Reisfield, M.D., a UF physician board-certified in pain medicine, palliative medicine, anesthesia and addiction medicine, treats patients with co-occurring pain and addiction diagnosis. He and his pain medicine faculty can offer UF pain medicine services to those with chronic neck, back, head or other pain and can treat patients who may have addictions to pain medications.

To further the theme of new program experts, expansion and growth, we have recently opened inpatient and partial hospitalization services through the new Eating Disorder Recovery Center in Gainesville. Kevin Wandler, M.D. a national expert and experienced psychiatrist who has treated thousands of patients with eating disorders, is leading a talented, interdisciplinary team to treat the most complex anorexia and bulimia cases. His vast knowledge of eating disorders paired with his board certifications in psychiatry and addiction medicine make him an excellent resource for patients with complicated eating disorder diagnosis.

In addition to pain medicine and the treatment of eating disorders, we are also focusing on our addiction services and the treatment of depression. As you may already know, we offer extensive addiction medicine services through the UF&Shands Florida Recovery Center in Gainesville. We have plans to open a new campus in July with more than 35 additional beds. At Shands at UF, we are treating depression and obsessive compulsive disorder with innovative techniques including repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and deep brain stimulation (DBS), respectively. UF faculty members with fellowship training in internal medicine, neurosurgery and geriatric psychiatry have been recruited to develop new programs and extend our research in to treatment resistant cases.   

If you would like to receive monthly e-briefs, please subscribe to Discovery to Recovery today!

Sincerely,

Mark S. Gold, M.D.
Chair, UF College of Medicine Department of Psychiatry

CME Lesson by Kevin Wandler, M.D.

Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness due to either medical complications of the disorder or suicide. The causes of eating disorders are multifactorial with a biopsychosocial basis. In simplistic terms, they are often the result of out of control dieting. However, if it was that simple, there would be millions more with anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa. As part of the illness, patients diagnosed with anorexia nervosa are characteristically resistant to treatment. They have a distorted body image and often believe that they are overweight, fat, and ugly, which results in a corresponding lack of motivation for recovery. Gaining weight is counterintuitive for them. Through the bingeing and purging behaviors of patients diagnosed with bulimia nervosa, there is resultant significant damage to their bodies. Comorbid psychiatric conditions encountered in both anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa include depression, substance abuse, sexual abuse, and anxiety disorders. The complexity of identifying and treating eating disorders requires high suspicion in patients who suddenly lose weight or stop developing. In addition, those involved in highrisk activities or involved in careers with increased pressure for weight control, such as wrestling, gymnastics, dancing, ice skating, theater, and modeling, are at increased risk for the development of an eating disorder. Individuals who have a history of depression, anxiety, substance abuse, or trauma often have a comorbid eating disorder. One of the goals of early treatment is simply getting patients to realize that they are starving themselves to death. Treatment takes a team of professionals, including a primary care provider, a dietitian/nutrition therapist, a psychotherapist and/or family therapist, and a psychiatrist. Treatment can take place in a variety of settings, from outpatient to inpatient hospitalization, depending on the severity of the individual’s illness.

Review the entire lesson from the Hatherleigh CME Journal: Directions in Psychiatry.

For more information about the UF&Shands Florida Recovery Center, please call 352.265.4FRC(4372).

Beginning in April, the new center, named UF&Shands Florida Recovery Center at Orlando Health, will serve as a destination for the evaluation and treatment of people facing alcohol and drug addiction. 

The UF&Shands Florida Recovery Center at Orlando Health bridges the gap in outpatient services for people suffering with an addiction who are receiving fragmented inpatient and outpatient services, or those who are leaving the Central Florida area to seek addiction treatment elsewhere.   

“Addiction is both a national and local public health concern,” said Gilbert T. Tamakloe, medical director, Behavioral Health Services, Orlando Health. “Additional outpatient services for addiction are a great need in our community. Although there are programs available, there are few programs that compare to the comprehensive approach the FRC provides to its patients. We are pleased that the Florida Recovery Center will join our health care organization in meeting our community’s growing needs.” 

Orlando Health and UF&Shands look forward to offering the community a partnership in alcohol and drug addiction evaluations, inpatient and outpatient services and addiction intervention and treatment, officials said.  

“It is an ideal scenario to bring a new, expert Florida Recovery Center team with special training and skills to Orlando Health, which is a state leader in so many other areas of medicine and surgery,” said Mark S. Gold, M.D., a professor and chairman of the  department of psychiatry at UF. “We know from the calls for help that we receive that Orlando is an underserved area. Dr. Scott Teitelbaum, our division chief of addiction medicine, is the president of the Florida Society of Addiction Medicine and we know from his work that board-certified, fellowship-trained addiction physicians are very hard to find in the Orlando area.” 

Timothy Huckaby, M.D., addiction medicine specialist, has been appointed as the medical director of the UF&Shands Florida Recovery Center at Orlando Health. He will evaluate patients, consult with physicians and healthcare professionals at South Seminole Hospital and others in the Central Florida community, and oversee an intensive outpatient program (IOP), a three- to six-week program that integrates patients back into their communities, families and work lives. 

The IOP also consists of group meetings four nights a week for 12 to 16 weeks. The primary goal of the IOP is to help assist patients in their recovery from addiction and help integrate them back into living healthy lives. 

Dr. Huckaby and his clinical team will examine some of the behaviors that have caused the patient to have difficulty in the past, and change those behaviors to establish and maintain a sober support system. The FRC team will provide family, couples and group counseling as well. The goal of the program is to help those in recovery effectively manage the social, spiritual, physical and emotional aspects of life to maintain a lifestyle of recovery.

The FRC team will work with the Orlando Health Behavioral Healthcare at South Seminole Hospital (inpatient) and the Orlando Health Behavioral Specialists (outpatient) teams of certified and experienced psychiatrists, nurses, social workers and other clinicians to provide patient care.  

Dr. Huckaby is a board-certified anesthesiologist who also has been trained in an addiction medicine fellowship at UF and an obstetric anesthesiology fellowship at Harvard. His experience in pain, pain management, women’s health and iatrogenic addictions will add to FRC at Orlando Health’s suite of treatment options. In addition to addiction services, Dr. Huckaby also will offer pain medicine services through the UF&Shands Florida Recovery Center. 

Because the Florida Recovery Center is affiliated with the University of Florida and  UF’s McKnight Brain Institute, patients have the benefit of a bench-to-bedside approach to addiction science, receiving treatment based on the latest addiction medicine research.

The UF&Shands Florida Recovery Center at Orlando Health is part of an ongoing collaboration of health initiatives between Orlando Health and UF&Shands, making care more accessible to millions of patients over a 20-county region. The alliance was formed in 2010 as a result of a longstanding history of close working relationships. 

In addition to the recent addiction medicine initiative, the organizations have formed or will begin several joint clinical programs in areas including pediatrics, neuroscience, oncology, women’s health, transplantation and cardiovascular medicine. 

For additional information about the Florida Recovery Center at Orlando Health, contact 855.265.4FRC(4372), or visit FloridaRecoveryCenter.UFandShands.org.

Read the article.

If you or someone you care about is suffering from depression or addiction, please call the Florida Recovery Center for more information at 352.265.4FRC(4372).

• “Wonderful experience.” – Roger
• “Peace, love and harmony”
• “Freedom, joy, love!”
• “Shands Vista and the Florida Recovery Center helped me set my life straight. I can never thank this program enough.” Cameron, 17 years old
• “Shands Vista and the Florida Recovery Center were my wake up calls to sober school becuase it took almost two months in treatment to admit that I am an alcohol addict. After that, things in my life started changing for the better.” Ken, six years clean
• “Shands Vista: an opportunity to embrace and enjoy” – Luke
• “Shands Vista and the Florida Recovery Center have given me hope, joy, fellowship, lifelong friendships and a second chance at life.” Lauren, 20 years old
• “My mind and heart have been opened to a better life. Not only a sober life, but a life of fellowship…a life as a human being who can add to society, not just take from it.” – Bill
• “The Florida Recovery Center and Shands Vista have provided a life-changing experience for me!” – Lorin, 35
• “For me, it was life or death. Shands Vista and the Florida Recovery Center helped me choose life.”
• “Hope and healing”
• “Shands Vista and the Florida Recovery Center have truly given me my life back.” Lindsey, 29
• “Shands Vista and the Florida Recovery Center have given me the ability to be a father again. I am forever grateful and so is my baby.”
• “Shands Vista and the Florida Recovery Center helped save me from a slow death.” – Debora, 48, two years sober
• “Recovery means one more chance to make a good life.”
• “1. Go to meetings. 2. Join a group. 3. Get a sponsor. 4. Find your higher power and talk to him. 5. Keep coming back!”
• “Shands Vista and the Florida Recovery Center saved my family from unending pain and gave us all a new start.” – Bill

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) has produced a guide for those seeking drug abuse treatment. Know what to ask. To review this guide, visit NIDA.

Within a safe and intimate environment, we will provide and integrated treatment approach, including:

• Evaluations
• Expressive therapy
• Nutrition therapy
• Cognitive behavioral therapy
• Dialectical behavioral therapy
• Exposure & response prevention
• Motivational interviewing
• Psycho-educational groups
• Individual, group & family therapy

For more information about the treatment options at the Eating Disorder Recovery Center, please call 352.265.EDRC (3372.)