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OPIOID PRESCRIPTION AND ADDICTION ARE SERIOUS PROBLEMS. CONSIDER THESE FACTS FROM THE CDC: IN THE LAST 15 YEARS, PRESCRIPTIONS FOR OPIOIDS HAVE QUADRUPLED. DURING THAT SAME TIME PERIOD, MORE THAN 165,000 PEOPLE DIED FROM PRESCRIPTION OPIOID OVERDOSE. IN 2014 ALONE, NEARLY 2 MILLION AMERICANS WERE ADDICTED TO OR ABUSED OPIOID MEDICATIONS. THE STATISTICS FOR OHIO a re just a s a l a r m i n g , a c c o r d i n g t o S a m e r Narouze, MD, PhD. "Deaths due to unintentional drug poi- sonings increased between 2000 and 2012 by 336 percent — mostly due to prescrip- tion drug overdoses," he says. "In 2014, six to seven Ohioans died each day from a drug overdose." Dr. Narouze is a board-certified anes- thesiologist with subspecia lty board certifications in pain medicine, interven- tional pain management, and neurology headache medicine. Internationally recog- nized, he has authored or co-authored more than 150 peer-reviewed journal articles, abstracts and case reports; delivered more than 180 invited presentations; and led more than 60 workshops on non- narcotic pain management treatments. He has also reviewed, by invitation, more than 100 articles and edited 5 medical textbooks including Atlas of Ultrasound Guided Procedures in Interventional Pain Management, and is currently an editor or reviewer for more than 17 professional medical journals, including The Journal of the American Medical Association. Since 2010, Dr. Narouze has been Chair of The Center for Pain Medicine at Western Reser ve Hospita l in Cuya hoga Fa lls, where he directs a multidisciplinary team of specialists. They include four board- certified pain medicine physicians, two psychologists, a chiropractor, a physical therapist, six certified physician assistants and nurse practitioners, and a clinical pharmacist to monitor potential drug interactions. A ll are full time. A ll are onsite. And all are dedicated to a com- prehensive approach to pain management in which opioids are the last resort. "Non-opioid therapy comes first," says Dr. Narouze. "This is not new for us, but it is new for others since the paradigm change. In March, the CDC released its Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain (for primary care physicians with patients 18 and older). Their first guideline, there are 12, is that non-opioid therapy comes first." Samer Narouze, MD, PhD Leading the Way in Advanced Pain Medicine at Western Reserve Hospital BY ROBERT JANEK Pain management is a comprehensive team effort at The Center for Pain Medicine at Western Reserve Hospital. Shown here are a few members of that team (L-R): Dmitri Souzdalnitski, MD, PhD; Syed Ali, MD; Vicki Jessop, CNP; Glenn Rech, RPh; Samer Narouze, MD, PhD, Chair of The Center for Pain Medicine; Denise Roadman, PA-C; Greg Carpenter, PA-C; Leon Howard II, PhD, PCC-S; and Tim Sable, MD. PHOTOS BY KEN LOVE COURTESY OF WESTERN RESERVE HOSPITAL 0 6C O V E R S T O R Y