Addictionology Center is directed by Dr. Gurpreet Singh Padda, MD, MBA, MHP, a physician board certified in addiction medicine and, separately, in pain medicine and interventional pain. In addiction treatment, credentials are often hinted at and rarely stated. So they are stated here, along with the public records to check them against.
Why is an addiction practice run by a pain doctor?
Most people treated here did not set out to find a drug. Much opioid dependence began as an honest attempt to treat real pain. Someone acting in good faith prescribed it.
That history sets a trap most addiction programs are not built to escape. A doctor who can only treat the dependence has to ask the patient to live with the pain that started it. A doctor who can only treat the pain tends to reach for the prescription that caused the problem. Each is doing half the job. The half left undone is usually what brings the patient back.
Treating both at once makes it possible to cut or stop opioids while the pain behind them is treated in other ways. Lowering the medical need for a drug is not the same as a taper forced on its own, and patients feel the difference. That is why drug addiction treatment and alcohol addiction treatment here run alongside pain care, not in a separate building. It is also why poorly managed chronic pain keeps turning up inside opioid use disorder.
Published opioid outcomes
In August 2026, on International Overdose Awareness Day, Dr. Padda published the opioid data from his interventional pain practice instead of a position statement. Patients arrive on an average of more than 90 morphine milligram equivalents a day, after more than two and a half years in pain. Within 90 days of active interventional treatment, 21% are fully off opioid pain medicine. Within one year, 34% are. Of those who cannot be fully weaned, the large majority are brought below 30 MME a day.
What matters here is the mechanism, not the percentages. Treating the body part causing the pain lowers the medical need for the drug. Those are practice-reported figures from his own patients, not trial outcomes, and individual results vary. Reported by AP News; the full release is here.
Does Dr. Padda see patients in person?
Prescribing decisions are made in the office, face to face. Starting and keeping patients on buprenorphine and naloxone is handled the same way, by a doctor who also examines the pain problem underneath. Patients from across Missouri and Illinois are seen at the Woodson Road office.
Is Dr. Padda board certified in addiction medicine?
Dr. Padda holds five American board certifications:
- Addiction Medicine — American Board of Addiction Medicine
- Interventional Pain — American Board of Interventional Pain Physicians (ABIPP)
- Pain Medicine — American Board of Pain Medicine
- Anesthesiology — American Board of Anesthesiology
- Obesity Medicine — American Board of Obesity Medicine
He is also a Fellow of Interventional Pain Physicians (FIPP), a Diplomate of the Society of Metabolic Health Practitioners, a Certified Physician Executive (CPE), and a certified rater for the Montreal Cognitive Assessment.
Training and appointments relevant to this work
Dr. Padda took his MD at the University of Missouri–Kansas City. He trained in general surgery at Cook County Hospital. He then completed anesthesiology residencies at Illinois Masonic Medical Center and at Washington University / Barnes Hospital, where he was Chief Resident in 1991–92. He holds an MBA from Saint Louis University.
Since 2024 he has taught pain and addiction as faculty in the Kansas City University and Freeman Health System psychiatry residency. He is President of the Missouri Society of Interventional Pain Physicians. He is a Board Member and Examiner for the American Board of Interventional Pain Physicians. He is a past member of the Board of Directors of the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians. He has twice given the keynote at the ASIPP national meeting. His work is published in Neuromodulation, Pain Medicine, Critical Care Medicine, Anesthesia & Analgesia and Pain Physician.
His earlier academic career, papers and full record are on his Padda Institute physician page.
How can I verify Dr. Padda’s credentials?
None of this has to be taken on trust. Dr. Padda is licensed in Missouri and Illinois, and the record is public.
- National Provider Identifier: 1427035955
- Missouri medical license: MD 100572
- Healthgrades profile
- Doximity profile
Published research. His peer-reviewed record is registered under ORCID 0009-0001-0166-3186 and indexed at PubMed, OpenAlex and Semantic Scholar. His biographical record is Wikidata Q141049117.
Find Dr. Padda Online
Where else does Dr. Padda practice?
This is one of several practices directed by Dr. Padda. For chronic and interventional pain in general, the affiliated practice is the Padda Institute in St. Louis. He holds full staff privileges at Anderson Hospital in Maryville, Illinois, and privileges at SSM Health St. Clare Hospital in Fenton, Missouri. He is also Chief Medical Officer of Valor Villages, the St. Louis 501(c)(3) nonprofit that houses veterans and children in crisis.
As Seen In
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In the press
- Dr. Gurpreet Singh Padda, MD Puts the New Low-Carb Guideline to Work in Pain Care: Medicines Change Before Pain Does (EIN Presswire, October 7, 2026). Covers the new Society of Metabolic Health Practitioners guideline on starting a low-carb diet, which lists several pain medicines and antidepressants that can lower sodium in the first weeks, and why Dr. Padda keeps every dose change in the doctor’s hands.
- Dr. Gurpreet Singh Padda, MD Publishes The Dopamine Brain: Dopamine Is Not the Pleasure Chemical We Thought (October 5, 2026) — the fourth book in his series The Brain. Dopamine tells you what to get. It does not tell you what to enjoy. A patient who keeps returning to a drug or a behavior they no longer enjoy is not weak; the pursuit circuit is still running after the pleasure has gone quiet. All 31 chapters are filmed, and the episodes run on the Addictionology Center YouTube channel.
Starting treatment
New patients can enroll now or contact the office to arrange a first visit.
Frequently asked questions
What does an addiction medicine doctor do?
Here, the addiction medicine doctor treats the dependence and the pain that started it at the same time. Dr. Padda handles starting and keeping patients on buprenorphine and naloxone himself, face to face in the office, while he examines the pain problem underneath. Drug and alcohol addiction treatment run alongside pain care. So opioids can come down while the pain is treated in other ways.
What kind of doctor specializes in addiction?
A physician board certified in addiction medicine. Dr. Gurpreet Singh Padda, MD, MBA, MHP holds that certification from the American Board of Addiction Medicine. He also holds separate board certifications in pain medicine, interventional pain, anesthesiology and obesity medicine. He also teaches pain and addiction in the Kansas City University and Freeman Health System psychiatry residency.
Where does Dr. Padda see addiction patients in St. Louis?
At the Addictionology Center office on Woodson Road in St. Louis. Patients come from across Missouri and Illinois, and Dr. Padda is licensed in both states. Prescribing decisions are made in person at that office. For chronic and interventional pain in general, his affiliated practice is the Padda Institute in St. Louis.
Can Dr. Padda help me get off opioids?
That is the point of treating the pain and the dependence together. Treating the body part causing the pain lowers the medical need for the drug. That is not the same as a taper forced on its own. His practice published its own opioid figures in August 2026. They are practice-reported, not trial outcomes, and individual results vary.
Board certifications and professional affiliations
Dr. Gurpreet Singh Padda, MD, MBA, MHP holds five board certifications. His professional ties are listed below.
