Top Hospitals: Addiction

The largest hospital in Pennsylvania exclusively for the treatment of addiction and complex secondary mental and medical disorders, Eagleville Hospital is a 45-acre private nonprofit facility accredited by the Joint Commission, licensed by the state departments of health and welfare, and partially funded by Montgomery County for its adult basic education program. Operating under the belief that addiction is a chronic disease caused by a nexus of biological, psycho-social and environmental factors, Eagleville offers many paths to recovery, in a hospital or non-hospital setting, to people of every background and social class, regardless of economic circumstances. The structured long- and short-term residential programs provide detox, therapy and medication management for people with co-occurring disorders and medical care where needed — all delivered by highly trained specialists in the addiction field whose research papers are widely published. In 2006, Eagleville was honored by the state for its professional education training; it’s a training site for the Drexel University College of Medicine (100 Eagleville Road, Eagleville, 610-539-6000, eaglevillehospital.org).

Named for a noted Penn addictions expert who’s a specialist in the development of medications for alcohol and drug abuse, the Charles O’Brien Center at UPHS offers cutting-edge, evidence-based protocols for treatment of addiction. Its respected and well-funded research arm, the Center for Studies of Addictions (CSA), founded in 1971, has led to some breakthrough drugs, such as methadone and naltrexone, and novel psychotherapies to battle alcohol, opiate and cocaine abuse. Scientists here are particularly interested in discovering how addiction works in the brain and how drugs can break the patterns. In accordance with a philosophy that it’s important to treat the person, not just the addiction, patients are carefully evaluated and then enrolled in a clinical trial, referred to a fee-based private practice with someone on staff, or assisted in finding a community-based treatment (3900 Chestnut Street, 215-222-3200; Presbyterian Hospital, 39th and Market streets, 215-662-8747; http://pennhealth.com/behav_health/addiction/).