Ginari Gibb Price is an Atlanta psychiatrist who specializes in treating developmental disorders, depression, and a range of other mental health issues and conditions. She is double board certified and triple board eligible, has completed several Fellowship programs, and has been in practice for ten years.

Her areas of expertise also include substance dependence. "I am one of the few physicians in my area trained and certified to prescribe Suboxone for opiate detoxification and addiction," she says, referring to a medication that helps drug addicts be weaned off of their addiction to an opiate such as heroin. She says that it works by suppressing the withdrawal symptoms as an addict stops using. Only doctors with special training, like Ginari Gibb Price, can get a license to prescribe it.

Some of the most common opiates that people become dependent upon are Codeine, Vicodin, morphine, Percocet, Dilaudid, and Duragesic. They are used to treat and manage pain and are derived from opium, and produce a sense of euphoria and well-being that some people are especially susceptible to. Ginari Gibb Price says that it is not uncommon for people who have had such opiates prescribed for pain relief to develop a tolerance for the medication, meaning that they need more and more of it to get the same pain relieving effect. In some cases this can further develop into an addiction.

As an expert on substance dependence, Ginari Gibb Price knows that it can be very difficult to get people who are hooked on a drug to be successfully rehabilitated. Many environmental factors can figure into someone staying off of drugs once they have physically overcome the addiction, and that is one of the most difficult phases of the recovery process.

She says that unlike other medications used to help an addict get off of drugs, Suboxone does not give the patient a greater high the more they use it. Because it only produces a mild high at best, it has is often used to get people off of more addictive substances such as heroin. Suboxone is, however, potentially addictive and must be used with great care. And overdosing on Suboxone can cause slowed breathing, seizures, a loss of consciousness, and even death.