Marvin Seppala, MD

Dr. Marvin Seppala, chief medical officer of the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, visited Congress today to testify about the ongoing opioid epidemic in the U.S. and defended the organization’s approach to addiction treatment.

“Individuals who are dependent on opioids face unique challenges that often undermine their ability to remain in treatment and ultimately achieve long-term abstinence,” Seppala told members of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, according to his written testimony.

These patients are hypersensitive to real or imaged pain and vulnerable to stressful events, he said. Anxiety, depression and intense craving for the drugs can continue for months or years.

Seppala, who lives in Wilsonville, highlighted Hazelden’s 12-step treatment protocol. It includes the latest in addiction research, group therapy and patient education. The protocol can also include the medications Vivitrol, which blocks opioid receptors in the brain, and Suboxone, which partially stimulates the receptors and is used for both detox and maintenance of opioid dependence.

“Some see medication assistance and abstinence as diametrically opposed, and we have been criticized by those who support an abstinence-only approach for altering our program in this manner. We do not see a conflict,” Seppala said. “Even when medications are part of our protocol, abstinence is still the objective.”