Dr. Reza Mohammad Cautions Public About Addiction Transference
Addiction transference is running rampant in the post-bartiatric surgery community and beyond.
Dr. Reza Mohammad, Founder of Inspire Malibu, recognized by many as the top addiction treatment center in Malibu, California and Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences at the University of Southern California (http://www.USC.edu), announced today that based on the rapidly growing number of post-bariatric surgery patients entering addiction treatment programs with severe addiction issues, there needs to be a much greater effort in the medical community to alert the public and weight loss surgery candidates about addiction transference.
“Addiction transference is essentially when addicts transfer one addiction to another and is nothing new. Cross addiction and addiction transference is nothing new to the addiction community; however, with the recent surge in bariatric procedures across the country, the number of post-bariatric patients entering drug addiction treatment for non food related addictions is soaring and that clearly indicates that the system is flawed,” said Dr. Mohammad.
Dr. Mohammad continued, “It is this simple, the clinics and medical professionals screening candidates for bariatric procedures are only preparing patients for the physical component of the procedure and neglecting the emotional component, which is not just irresponsible, but potentially deadly. While weight-loss surgery may help patients control their weight and food consumption, many end up struggling with entirely new compulsive disorders such as alcoholism, drug addiction, gambling addiction or compulsive shopping.” He added, “It is criminal that these so-called medical professionals are not properly screening-out candidates susceptible to addiction transfer or better preparing them with the proper tools to avoid cross addiction and frankly, they need to have their licenses revoked. Until then, my team and I will continue to alert the public about addiction transference and the potential dangers of ill-advised bariatric procedures.”
