Late last year, Dr. Jerry Rand joined the people on the critically acclaimed Interventions television show to help treat a very difficult case, one that was right up Dr. Rand’s alley. At well over 2 million viewers, the episode turned out to be the most widely watched in the show’s history, with the patient suffering from a viciously painful form of chronic and acute rheumatoid arthritis.

"There’s no question this was a very tough case," says Dr. Rand, whose innovative approaches to treating pain and addiction have been widely followed by medical colleagues throughout the nation, and, indeed, worldwide. "But we were able to put the arthritis into remission, while also treating our client for her addiction, teaching her how to deal with pain in the future in ways that would lessen her dependence on addictive pain killers."

That there is an enormous medical problem in the treatment of pain - and, thus, also an enormous medical business opportunity - there can be no doubt, with Dr. Rand pointing out that $86 billion a year is spent treating pain, a figure that is just a few billion shy of what is spent annually on the treatment of cancer.
And, in their efforts to alleviate the suffering of those in pain, doctors also prescribe an enormous amount of opiates, with Dr. Rand pointing to the fact that 86 million people are currently being prescribed opiates for one reason or another. "We are giving out way too many opiates, there is no question," says Dr. Rand. And this is where innovative places like Bay Recovery come in, offering treatment of chronic pain with cuttingedge modalities that address what are, more often than not, addiction issues that are just as acute and chronic as the pain that clients are suffering.
In an industry where claims of uniqueness proliferate, and very frequently fall short, Bay Recovery is indeed unique. What separates Bay Recovery from most centers is the deep and wide variety of medical talent the center can draw on from the thriving medical practice that is also part of the business. "We have an enormous talent pool that we utilize from the practice, and that deeply informs the care we offer at the center," says Bay Recovery CEO Phyllis Meagher, adding that the practice, which treats thousands of patients a year, has MD and PhD specialists in areas ranging from addiction to psychiatry and internists, as well as alternative practices like acupuncture and other Eastern medical approaches. All told, there are 15 specialists working together at the practice.
And leading the pain practice, which fills a goodly portion of Bay Recovery’s 30 residential beds - which operate on the California 6-bed model - is Dr. Rand. Dr. Rand employs the latest pain research while treating his chronic pain patients. And at the core of his treatment modalities is the utilization of studies that show the use of narcotics, while actually alleviating pain on a physical level, also increases the perception of pain on the part of the patient, thus becoming, at some point, also potentially counterproductive in the treatment of pain.
At Bay Recovery, clinicians use a variety of multi-disciplinary approaches to treating co-occurring chronic pain and addiction disorders, depending on the individual needs of clients as they enter treatment. Always, according to Dr. Rand, adapting modalities in an integrative manner.