| February 9, 2004 |
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NAMA is pleased to announce that Dr. Marc Shinderman has been recognized in Europe for his pioneering work in addiction treatment medicine. The award was presented this past December during the European Methadone Conference (Pietrosanta, Italy). One of NAMA’s international affiliates, Roberto Nardini of Sociali Gruppo SIMS helped with the presentation. The award recognized Shinderman’s research on metabolism and methadone that has contributed to a greater understanding of why some patients need higher doses or special dose regimens. The findings of Shinderman’s research has not only helped patients that may not metabolize methadone normally but all methadone patients because it has helped to separate the belief and stigma that good patients take low doses and bad ones take high doses. The CAP Quality Care (http://www.capqualitycare.com/) website says it all:
“Our treatment philosophy embraces accepting patients for whom they are, as people, and not judging them by their disease or diagnosis.”
Roberto Nardini (Gruppo SIMS, Italy) provides attendees with
Dr. Shinderman’s accomplishments.
American MMT Clinician Receives Prestigious Italian Award
Addiction Treatment Forum, News and Updates
January 11, 2004
http://www.atforum.com/
Westbrook, Maine; January 11, 2004 — Marc Shinderman, MD of CAP Quality Care, with methadone maintenance treatment programs in Illinois and Maine, was awarded the coveted “Paolo Picchio Award” at the 5th Italian Methadone and Other Substitutive Therapies Conference, held in Pietrosanta, Italy. The conference was attended by leading researchers and clinicians from throughout Europe, the United States, and Australia.
The Paolo Picchio award recognizes “pioneers” in the field of drug addiction treatment. Recipients are selected by conference sponsors from the Departments of Neuroscience and Psychiatry at several Italian universities. Explaining Shinderman’s contribution to the field, Roberto Nardini of Pietrosanta, Italy, president of the award selection committee, said, “Through critical observation of genetic and acquired factors affecting metabolism, Dr. Shinderman has helped to solve a clinical puzzle: why different patients require a very wide range of oral methadone dosages to stabilize and cease opiate drug abuse. Prior to this breakthrough, a large segment of the population seeking treatment was under-medicated and appeared unresponsive to treatment with conventional dosages, largely because of the particular way they metabolized the medication.”
Previous American recipients of the Paolo Picchio Award included Robert Newman, MD, who headed what was once the world’s largest methadone treatment program at New York’s Beth Israel Medical Center, and Loretta Finnegan, MD, of the National Institutes of Health and an expert on drug dependence in childbearing women.