Dr. Richard Metier is a veteran psychiatrist, working for years in one of the South's most storied healthcare institutions, Ochsner Health System in Louisiana. Throughout his career at Ochsner, Dr. Metier had the chance to view first hand the ravages of addiction, treating many patients who were victims of the disease, and of co-occurring disorders as well. "It isn't just the patients I had over years," says Dr. Metier, who recently retired. "It's also that addiction has been very prevalent in my own family, so the issues surrounding the disease and its treatment are very close to my heart." Upon his retirement, Dr. Metier resolved to devote much of his time to helping addicts recover, eventually partnering with another investor, Fernwood CEO Joseph Murphy, to open a new treatment center located near the Louisiana border in southern Mississippi. Called Fernwood House, after the town in which it is located, Dr. Metier's new center joins other leading treatment facilities in the area, including St. Christopher's The Right Step, Palmetto Addiction Treatment Center and Acadiana.

Fernwood House, which will occupy an extensively renovated old Victorian dwelling loaded with southern charm, will start off with 20 beds for residential inpatient care, with an additional six beds earmarked for extended care. In keeping with many new centers opening these days, Fernwood House is pricing its services relatively modestly at $15,000 for treatment, with extended care costing $5,000 a month. "There has been a very large increase in demand for beds in this area," says Rudy Troyer, Fernwood House's new executive director, pointing out that other facilities in the market have been expanding, including Acadiana. Unlike most centers its size, Fernwood will also be offering detox services, at $1,000 a day.

In fact, detox is one of the main reasons Dr. Metier and his fellow investors started Fernwood in the first place. "My wife has for a long time been working with amino acids, examining their effectiveness in helping with detox," says Dr. Metier. "A few years ago, she came across a formulation that appeared to be particularly effective." Pointing out that he is a scientist, Dr. Metier says that he was initially very skeptical of the amino acid detox. "But as I began to observe patients detoxing with the formulation, I became more and more intrigued. There appeared to be a very quick and advanced recovery in patients who were administered the formulation." And while Dr. Metier says the formula has been quite effective in detox from a wide range of substances, Troyer points out that it becomes particularly useful for patients who have become dependent on very large doses of opiates.

"There are many centers in the area who will not detox individuals who are hooked on very large doses of opiates," he said, adding that this type of detox tends to be particularly painful and protracted. Administered as a 10-day IV drip, Troyer says that he has seen individuals who had previously been shooting up in excess of 250 milligrams of Oxycontin recover quickly with the detox. "Normally someone like this would be in agony without a meth step down. But by the third day with the amino acid detox, I have seen people up and around, laughing and content." But ever the scientist, Dr. Metier is approaching the amino acid detox very cautiously: "We will use our new center to study this further before we come to any final conclusions, and we will always be using the detox in combination with a strong 12-step program, in addition to a nutritional focus."