Gregory A. Acampora, MD is a psychiatrist who specializes in the treatment of patients with addictions, pain and serious co-occurring morbidities. He trained in Anesthesiology at the University of Virginia and went on to Yale for an advanced cardiovascular fellowship where he conducted research and developed early clinical applications for trans-esophageal echocardiography. Later, he took interest in physician health and addictions; this led him to retrain in Psychiatry and Addiction Psychiatry at Boston University Medical Center. Dr. Acampora is a Diplomat of the American Board Anesthesiology, Neurology and Psychiatry and Addiction Psychiatry. He is a faculty Psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital and full time Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Acampora’s major focus is to expand the understanding and treatment of addictions and related disorders. His major clinical goal is implementing remission maintenance, with a strong emphasis on psychoeducation for coping with adversities. He played a central role in developing an MGH guideline applied institution-wide for the perioperative continuous administration of buprenorphine for patients with opioid use disorder. This guideline was expanded to a Quality & Patient Experience institutional document for the newly formed Mass General Brigham system. This has led to guideline development and implementation nationally. He continually educates clinicians about novel buprenorphine applications alone and in combination with other opioids for addiction and pain or both. With his training and liaison experience, his mission is to educate proceduralists, specialists and addiction providers across disciplines about this. The vision is to stress prudent use of opioids and reduce high dose or chronic full agonist opioid exposure.
He has been on staff at the MGH Pain Clinic since 2014 and has written chapters for principal pain texts about the physical and mental intersection of pain and behaviors. He was invited to join the ongoing AMA Combined Opioid Task Force (OTF) and Pain Care Task Force (PCTF). Most recently he joined MGH HOME BASE care for veterans and families and applies his expert skills to this specialty group.
Dr. Acampora’s teaching extends to coworkers across disciplines about the evaluation and care of patients with addictions and/or pain as well as co-occurring medical and psychiatric illnesses encompassing: addictions progression; durable sustained recovery; pain process, PTSD; complex pharmacology interactions and neuro/cardiac physiology and military psychiatry. Other areas of interest include: Addiction Salience, Central Autonomic Network (CAN), Cortico-Striato(Cerebello)-Thalamo-Cortical Circuits, and TSF (12-Step Facilitation) mechanisms.
Gregory Acampora, MD, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.
