In-Person Addiction Medicine for Ferguson
North County has been hit hard by fentanyl-driven overdose, and office-based treatment remains thin on the ground. We take new patients on scheduled appointments and start medication once you have been examined.
Office-based treatment has stayed thin across north county even as fentanyl has made the stakes higher. New patients are taken on scheduled appointments here, and medication starts once you have been examined — not after a series of preliminary visits.
West on Airport Road or I-170 to the Woodson Rd exit — a short trip from anywhere in Ferguson. The clinic is at 4477 Woodson Rd, Suite 101, St. Louis, MO 63134, next to St. Louis Lambert International Airport.
Treatment for Ferguson patients
Delivered face to face at the Woodson Rd clinic:
Opioid Addiction Treatment
Buprenorphine/naloxone in person, without a wait for a slot. What this involves.
Alcohol Addiction Treatment
Alcohol use disorder managed as a medical condition. What this involves.
Drug Addiction Treatment
Drug and polysubstance use, treated alongside what drives it. What this involves.
The treatment gap is not about willingness
The persistent finding in this field is that most people with opioid use disorder never receive the medication that treats it. The reasons studied most often are not motivational. They are the number of prescribers, how far away they are, whether appointments exist, whether insurance is accepted, and whether the clinic feels like somewhere you will be treated decently.
That last one is not a soft factor. People who expect to be judged do not come back after a first appointment, and a treatment nobody returns to has an effectiveness of zero regardless of what the trials show.
It is worth stating plainly what this clinic is: an office-based practice where you are examined, prescribed for, and seen again. Not a queue, not an assessment that leads to another assessment.
What federal privacy protection actually covers
Substance use disorder treatment records carry protections that go beyond the rules governing the rest of your medical care. Disclosure generally requires your specific written consent naming who receives the information and why. A general release signed at a front desk does not cover these records.
In practice that means your employer does not learn you are in treatment because a record moved between offices, and neither does a family member who calls to ask.
It is equally important to be clear about the limits, because a promise with unmentioned exceptions is worse than an honest boundary. We will tell you exactly what is and is not disclosable in your situation, and what leaves this office is your decision. The privacy policy and consent documents set it out.
Naloxone belongs in the house whatever else is happening
This applies whether or not you are in treatment, and whether or not you intend to keep using. Naloxone reverses an opioid overdose, it is available without a prescription in Missouri, and it does nothing at all to someone who has not taken opioids — so there is no scenario in which having it causes harm.
The people who most need one in the house are frequently the ones who feel least entitled to ask for it. It is worth getting past that, because an overdose is survivable with naloxone present and frequently is not without it.
Risk is also highest at particular moments: after any period of reduced use, after release from custody, after a hospital stay, and any time the supply changes. Tolerance falls faster than people expect, and a dose that was routine a fortnight ago can be fatal today.
Treatment does not require you to have hit a bottom first
The idea that someone has to lose enough before treatment can work is folk wisdom, not evidence, and it has done a great deal of damage. Outcomes are better, not worse, when treatment starts before someone has lost their job, their housing and their relationships.
That matters for how people present here. Patients regularly apologize for not being in a bad enough state to deserve an appointment, or wait until a crisis makes the decision for them.
There is no threshold to cross. If substance use is costing you something you would rather keep, that is sufficient reason for an appointment, and starting from a stable position makes the work considerably easier.
Insurance and what happens when there is none
Cost is one of the practical obstacles that keeps people out of treatment, and it is worth raising at the first call rather than discovering later. Tell us what coverage you have, or that you have none, and we will tell you what is possible.
Medication for opioid use disorder is covered by most plans, including Medicaid, and generic buprenorphine/naloxone is inexpensive relative to what continued use costs. Prior authorization is sometimes required — and an authorization is a step in a process, not a promise of payment, which is a distinction worth understanding before you rely on it.
What we will not do is let the question go unasked until it becomes a reason someone stops coming.
What Ferguson patients ask
Are you taking new patients from Ferguson?
Yes. New patients are seen by scheduled appointment, and treatment begins once you have been examined in person.
Can I get naloxone here?
Yes, and we would rather you had it than not. In Missouri it is available at pharmacies without an individual prescription, and it is worth having in the house whatever stage you are at.
Does anything get reported to police or an employer?
No. Treatment records are protected and disclosure requires your specific written consent. We will tell you plainly what the narrow legal exceptions are rather than implying there are none.
Getting here from Ferguson
Addictionology Center
4477 Woodson Rd, Suite 101
St. Louis, MO 63134
Next to St. Louis Lambert International Airport.
Phone: +1 (314) 463-0100
Hours: Monday–Friday, 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM