Dr. David Cundiff, MD, MPH, FASAM

As a board-certified Addiction Medicine physician, Dr. Cundiff oversees the work of a Physician Associate and the medical care of each Tree House patient. Under Dr. Cundiff’s guidance, the Physician Assistant makes sure clients are physically able to participate in our program and adapts the program when appropriate for patient safety and the group’s well-being. Each patient’s medical plan is tailored to support that patient’s recovery goals, and medications are adjusted upward or downward as clinically indicated. Many clients come to Tree House hoping to reduce or discontinue the medications they arrive on, and when a client chooses that path and it is clinically safe, Dr. Cundiff guides a medically supervised taper. Patients who are prescribed medication for opioid use disorder are welcome at Tree House and are NEVER required to reduce or stop that medication as a condition of treatment. Dr. Cundiff and the Physician Assistant initiate prescriptions as needed, including buprenorphine for opioid use disorder. He also participates in staff case reviews alongside counselors and nurses, and when a client needs care beyond the scope of our PHP and IOP addiction treatment services, he coordinates the referral to the appropriate outside physician or specialist. Medication for opioid use disorder, including buprenorphine induction and dosing, is a clinical emphasis of his; he mentors other physicians in this area nationally and has presented on the evidence base at the national ASAM conference.