San Clemente, CA -- (ReleaseWire) -- 08/30/2016 --Sovereign Health, a leading national provider of behavioral health treatment services, announces a new television interview featuring Ashish "Ash" Bhatt, M.D., Sovereign Health's Chief Medical Officer (CMO). The interview, broadcast live on the NBC affiliate KMIR's program "Desert Living" on Wednesday, Aug. 24, features Dr. Bhatt discussing how someone can become addicted to opioids and the definition of opioid blockers.

As Dr. Bhatt notes in the interview, addiction is a brain disease and Sovereign Health looks at it as an illness. "When a drug or alcohol is introduced to the body and develops some sort of relationship with the brain, we [doctors] don't know how an individual will act once the substance is introduced," says Dr. Bhatt. "Over time, as the brain starts to alter from that exposure to drugs or alcohol, the memory, the chemicals and the motivation pursuing that reward start to change."

When asked if there's something in opioids that makes them more addictive, Dr. Bhatt replied, "Opioids have a very distinct chemical property. Fifty percent of the average population can become physically addicted to this drug. Even if given as therapeutic dosages, which are prescribed by a physician, you can be physically addicted in as little as two weeks."

In addition, Dr. Bhatt noted, "Pain medications produce euphoria, and since there are less pain medications on the street, people often seek out alternative methods of getting high. That's where we've seen the increase in heroin use, and because of that, Sovereign Health has an opioid blocker — FDA approved — that we insure to all of our opioid users to prevent them from getting high."

Sovereign Health operates nine treatment facilities in five states: California, Arizona, Florida, Texas and Utah. The facilities are fully licensed and have been awarded Gold Seal accreditation by the Joint Commission, the highest level of accreditation available in the behavioral health field. Desert Living is a 30-minute TV program broadcast from Palm Springs in the desert's Coachella Valley.

About Sovereign Health
Sovereign Health's mission is to provide a broad spectrum of high-quality behavioral health treatment services for adults and adolescents, including support services for family members. One factor that differentiates Sovereign from other treatment providers has been the company's ability to offer separate mental health and addiction or dual diagnosis treatment programs at its facilities.

For more information, visit www.sovhealth.com. 

Media Contact:
Wendy Allen, Public Relations Manager: 866-948-9688