Addiction Medicine Bridges Gap Between Mental Health and Internal Medicine for Valleywise Health Physician
Dr. Navkaran Girgla’s goal at Valleywise Comprehensive Health Center – Peoria is to help people understand that substance use disorder is a biological disease with physiological dependence that needs to be looked at, like heart disease, high cholesterol, or any other medical condition.
The biggest misnomer about substance use disorders is that they are a moral failing, according to Dr. Navkaran Girgla, addiction and internal medicine specialist at Valleywise Health.
“One of the things I realized early in my education is that you can treat someone’s diabetes, hypertension, or kidney disease, but if they are still dealing with a substance use disorder, it will always take top priority in their life,” said Dr. Girgla. “Unless you prioritize the treatment of mental health and substance use disorders, you aren’t going to be able to manage the rest of the patient’s medical needs. These types of issues will always be the front and center.”
Originally from Toronto, Dr. Girgla has been at Valleywise Health as an attending physician for one year. He did his residency at Valleywise Health in internal medicine and completed a fellowship in addiction medicine at Banner Health in 2022.
“I always wanted to be in medicine. In fact, watching my father, who is a psychiatrist, treat patients was a big motivator for me to attend medical school,” said Dr. Girgla. “Seeing firsthand the lack of care in mental health drove me to try harder to get into medical school.”
“When I chose to specialize in internal medicine, I thought that was the end of my work in mental health, but working at Valleywise and treating the population we do, I quickly realized that was not the case,” he added.
Dr. Girgla was doing a nocturnist rotation when he noticed that at least half the patients he saw in a given night were dealing with mental health problems, opioid use disorders, or issues with substances like meth, fentanyl, or alcohol. These were often the direct reasons for their admission.
“As physicians, we are great at saving a patient’s life if they are overdosing, but we aren’t doing enough to help them long-term,” he said. “That is what led me to pursue an addiction medicine subspecialty. My passion for this practice came directly from seeing a need and wanting to make a difference.”
The future of addiction medicine is positive, according to Dr. Girgla. “Many treatment options for opioid-use disorders show results as early as seven days into treatment. There are even ways to introduce patients to treatment while they are still actively using substances with many different techniques and inductions.”
“The great thing with this plan of action is you don’t have to force patients to endure withdrawal before you start treatment,” he said. “A patient can still have fentanyl, heroin, or oxycodone in their system when treatment begins. We are more likely to retain people in treatment when they see the results of the treatment quicker.”
Over the next two years, Dr. Girgla hopes to grow the addiction medicine program at Valleywise Health and add an inpatient service to help patients deal with detox and withdrawals, which will help facilitate a smooth bridge to outpatient treatment.
“This career path is remarkably rewarding,” Dr. Girgla concluded. “If you can get a patient into treatment, treatment works, which is very inspiring and motivating. I am optimistic for the future of this specialty and the number of people we can help have healthy and full lives.”
To support the work of Valleywise Health Foundation.
More Impact Stories