By Hayleigh Gowans

Staff Writer

Addiction and pain management can be a difficult thing to treat and is something that is prevalent in today’s society — but Dr. James Follette hopes to bring a change for the better in his patients’ lives by expanding his services to Onondaga County.

Follette has operated his practice in Oneida, Center for Addiction and Pain Management, for the past seven years, but said he wanted to open an office in Onondaga County to provide a place for residents who struggle with addiction or pain to get treatment. His Onondaga County office recently opened at 105 Spring St. in Fayetteville.

“Addiction is a real problem in our area, and people are dying from it,” said Follette. “I want to be a resource for the community and be able to help those struggling work through addiction.”

With a background in anesthesiology and urgent care treatment, Follette graduated from Albany Medical College in 1979, was licensed to practice medicine in New York state in 1980 and board certified in 1984. He was a former director of the New York State Medical Society’s Committee for Physicians’ Health and a former member of the State Board of Medical Conduct and its committee on substance abuse.

Many of his clients include opioid addicts, which includes heroin and many over-the-counter pain pills.

The main course of addiction recovery that Follette uses is prescribing a drug called suboxone, a partial opioid-agonist, in conjunction with individual and group therapy that acts as a support system for a patient.

“Treating patients is done on an individual basis because not everyone is the same,” said Follette. “I use a combination of medicine and therapy to help people get through … Abstinence is key because with the drugs that are out there now, one relapse mean death.”

Pain management, another specialty of Follette, is treated in a similar manner, with medication and individual and group therapy.

“Pain is like an addiction. People often come to me when they have tried other things that haven’t helped,” said Folette.

Follette said he became interested in addiction treatment after struggling with a Fentanyl addiction himself, which ended up costing him his ability to practice anesthesiology ever again. Because of this, he believes he is able to connect with many of his patients on a personal level.

“I see it as a gift. When I was going through it, it was tough on my wife and family,” said Follette. “By going through it myself, I understand on a personal level what is going through their minds and also the pharmacology and understanding of how receptors in the brain work with addiction … It has been really fulfilling as a physician.”

In addition to treating patients, Follette said he hopes to become a source of information in the community for addiction information because he believes the better educated the community is, the easier it is to help those struggling with addiction.

Costs for treatment include $350 for the initial appointment, $110 for individual therapy and $95 for group therapy sessions. If you or someone you know is interested in making an appointment with Dr. James Follette, call his Fayetteville office at 632-4246 or his Oneida office at 280-0603.