Managing Patients with Chronic Pain and Opioid Addiction

Donald R Taylor, MD, is the medical director at Comprehensive Pain Care, PC, and the principal investigator for Taylor Research, LLC. He graduated from the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta, GA in 1984. He then completed a residency in anesthesiology and critical care medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, MD. After this, he stayed at Johns Hopkins Hospital for a fellowship in Regional Anesthesia and Pain Management. During his fellowship he established the use of patient-controlled analgesia and epidural analgesia for postoperative pain at Johns Hopkins Hospital. After his fellowship was completed, he remained on the faculty for a year in the division of regional anesthesia and pain management, providing services in the operating room and in the pain clinic. In 1990, he left Johns Hopkins Hospital and returned to his native Georgia where he entered the private practice of anesthesiology and pain medicine. He has spent nearly a quarter of a century practicing pain medicine and conducting Phase II and III clinical trials for pain management medications and devices.His interest in the treatment of opioid addiction arose from his observations of the development of addiction in his own patients with chronic pain, and his recognition of the fact that few pain specialists knew how to manage this group of patients. After buprenorphine/naloxone became available for the office-based management of opioid addiction, Dr Taylor became certified in its use and began to use this medication to treat his patients with comorbid pain and addiction. After early success with this approach, he expanded his practice to accept referrals of patients with pain and addiction from other physicians. Currently, Dr Taylor divides his practice between treating patients with chronic pain without addiction, patients with chronic pain with addiction, and patients without pain but with opioid addiction. He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Addiction Medicine and a Diplomate of the American Board of Anesthesiology, with added qualifications in pain medicine. Dr Taylor also continues to be involved in numerous Phase II and III pharmaceutical clinical trials.