Keith Dmochowski: Caron Treatment Center opens new research building

Jun. 6—Amid a nationwide substance abuse crisis, understanding addiction has never been more necessary, according to Dr. Joseph Garbely, chief medical officer at Caron Treatment Centers.

"When you think about the third year of the pandemic and what it has left in its wake ... Over 100,000 overdose (deaths) last year, 95,000 people lost their loves to alcohol-related disorders," Garbely said, "We need to do something."

Fighting addiction with knowledge is the goal of the Fran and Doug Tieman Center for Research, which opened Monday on Caron's South Heidelberg Township campus.

"We want 100% recovery," Garbely said. "That sounds grandiose, but that's what we want. There's only one way to get that, and that's to find novel approaches to treating substance use disorder."

Construction of the Tieman Center was announced last June, and the project was funded via $7.9 million in private donations.

The center will focus on pinpointing new treatment options and more effective methods of identifying and preventing addiction.

Having a research facility adjoining a treatment center allows for bridging the gap between treatments that help in theory and those that help in practice, according to Dr. Erin Deneke, Caron's senior director of research.

"There's a difference between the academic research that goes on, and the actual clinical portion of the treatment," Deneke said, "The research we want is to inform real-world treatment."

Deneke said she didn't know of any other facility nationwide that combines addiction research and treatment like Caron.

Several research projects are already underway at the facility, many in partnership with Penn State Hershey School of Medicine.

One project involves studies that use a portable brain scanner to provide predictive information on whether patients will relapse.

Using that data, researchers predicted patient relapses with around 86% accuracy, Deneke said.

Coming up with effective treatments requires gathering objective medical data, Garbely noted.

To that end, the center's exam rooms are outfitted with EKG and respiratory monitors and other devices to conduct in-depth analyses of patients' health.

Deeper in the building sits a Faraday Cage — a small room that blocks out sound, electromagnetic waves, and other stimuli that could affect results' accuracy.

That room is essential for certain types of research, such as evaluating brain activity to see if common brain signatures appear in people with addiction, or studies that stimulate parts of the brain to potentially reduce cravings, said Dr. Olapeju Simoyan, executive director of research at Caron.

The building also holds conference space, allowing Caron to expand its academic partnerships and educational programs, train health care professionals on up-to-date research techniques and conduct pipeline programs for students interested in working in health care, Simoyan said.

Another advantage of the new facility is that participation in research can be expanded to people who aren't Caron patients.

"We've always been in a patient building so we've never been able to have people from outside come in," Deneke said.

Garbely noted that all of Caron's research projects share a common goal: to further the field of addiction studies and help those in need.

"Our research is not proprietary; we want to share this information, we want to help our colleagues out there, and join arms with them, so that we can have better outcomes," Garbely said.

In 2021, more than 3,500 families from local communities received residential, outpatient and/or family treatment services from Caron.