Ginari Gibb Price – Narcolepsy In the Elderly

Ginari Gibb Price is a psychiatrist who practices in Atlanta, Georgia. She has conducted much research during her career and has presented papers on various topics, including a paper called “Narcolepsy in the Elderly.”

As she knows, narcolepsy is a neurological disorder that is manifested in daytime sleepiness and sporadic and uncontrollable episodes of falling asleep in the daylight hours. It is not a fatal condition, but it can be very debilitating and can have a serious negative impact on the quality of life for the sufferer.

Narcolepsy, as Ginari Gibb Price knows, most often affects people between the ages of fifteen and thirty and is seldom reported in people after the age of fifty-five. But she says that cases of narcolepsy have been reported in people older than seventy. In common with cases in younger patients, narcolepsy in the elderly typically begins with daytime sleepiness and disrupted sleeping patterns at night. It is often accompanied by weakness in the muscles, known as cataplexy, which can be brought on by emotional events like laughter. Diagnoses of narcolepsy must be made in a sleep lab so that other causes of sleepiness can be ruled out. Other tests follow.

If a diagnosis of narcolepsy is confirmed, then Ginari Gibb Price says that treatment is important in order to alleviate mental and social impairments. Narcolepsy in older patients, however, does not always have to be as aggressive as it needs to be in younger patients because in most cases they do not have the same occupational or parental responsibilities.

Ginari Gibb Price – Substance Dependency

Ginari Gibb Price is a licensed and Board-certified psychiatrist practicing in Atlanta, Georgia. Her areas of specialty include developmental disorders, depression and neurodegenerative disorders, as well as substance dependence.

Substance dependence, she says, is a condition that results from the repeated use of certain drugs, and can result in withdrawal symptoms when the user stops taking those drugs. The dependence on the drugs is sometimes, but not always, associated with recreational use, but can also result from legally prescribed and administered medications.

A medication called Suboxone can be effective in helping people who are dependent on opiates kick their habit, and Ginari Gibb Price is qualified to provide that help. “I am one of the few physicians in my area trained and certified to prescribe Suboxone for opiate detoxification and addiction,” she says. Only doctors who have had special training can be licensed to prescribe Suboxone. It works, she explains, by suppressing the addict’s withdrawal symptoms and reducing their craving for more of the opiate they are addicted to. It is taken sublingually, meaning that it is placed under the tongue where it is absorbed by the blood vessels there.

But Ginari Gibb Price says that taking Suboxone is not, in and of itself, enough to help addicts recover. In fact, getting off of the drug physically, as difficult as that is, and as big an accomplishment as it is, is only the first step. She says that it is critical for recovering addicts to begin counseling to help them stay off the drug. There are many factors that can lead them back to the drug once it is out of their bodies, and for many recovering addicts they can be irresistible. She says that group therapy is usually the most effective type of counseling, because the patient is both supported and challenged by people who are going through the same thing.

Treating Opioid Dependence

Ginari Gibb Price is a psychiatrist who lives and works in Atlanta, Georgia, where she specializes in Child, Adolescent, and Adult Psychiatry. She attended Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, and has completed a general psychiatry residency and two fellowship programs.

Her areas of expertise include autism, developmental disorders, sleep medicine, substance dependence, depression, trauma, anxiety disorders, psychosis, and neurodegenerative disorders such as dementia. “I am one of the few physicians in my area trained and certified to prescribe Suboxone for opiate detoxification and addiction,” she says.

Suboxone, says Ginari Gibb Price, is a highly effective treatment of opioid dependence. Opioids are medications used to treat pain, but that can be highly addictive if not used properly. Medications that are classified as opioids include morphine and hydrocodone, also known as Vicodin.

As Ginari Gibb Price knows, this class of drugs can be very dangerous when used recreationally. She says that by treating a patient who has become dependent on opioids with Suboxone, the effects of withdrawal symptoms and cravings can be reduced, thereby helping the patient begin to recover from the dependence. But it must be carefully prescribed and managed, because Suboxone itself can be addictive, and patients may feel withdrawal symptoms as they come off of it.

Opioid dependence is a complex condition, says Ginari Gibb Price, and recovery involves more than just the physical symptoms of craving and withdrawal. Counseling is an equally important part of the recovery process, and ideally goes to the root causes of the use and misuse of opioids. Even after kicking their habits, former addicts are at risk for relapse from numerous psychological and social factors. But with a personal commitment and with the kind of help she can provide, many addicts stand an excellent chance of recovery.