STATE MEDICAL BOARD INVESTIGATES BURLINGTON PSYCHIATRIST

The North Carolina Medical Board has accused a Burlington
psychiatrist of prescribing narcotics to patients without properly
diagnosing their conditions, following up on alleged drug abuse and
properly documenting patients' records and medical histories.

Kenneth J. Headen, who specializes in psychiatry and addiction
psychiatry, disputes the accusations filed Thursday following a board
investigation into his records.

The accusations stem from several years when he practiced in
Reidsville and are based on five patients' records. Headen's
Reidsville office closed in March as he began practicing in
Burlington at 804 S. Church St. The board will hold a hearing on Aug.
20, at which time Headen's license could be suspended, revoked or
limited by the board. According to a list of charges available on the
board's Web site, the board became concerned with Headen's treatment
of patients suffering from pain and that he had become a source of
controlled substances for drug-seeking patients in 2005. In the
board's view, he prescribed narcotics without properly documenting
the need for them or monitoring their use. At that time, Headen told
the board he would cease treating chronic pain and attend a narcotics
prescribing course. He completed that course in November 2006. The
board alleges Headen never ceased treating chronic pain. In December
2007, the board reviewed several patients' charts. The board alleges
those patients were treated for pain after his attendance in the
prescribing course, and that proper documentation of their
conditions, treatments and medical histories wasn't kept. According
to the board, those patients were prescribed narcotics such as
methadone, Percocet, Cymbalta and Adderal for conditions including
migraine headaches, degenerative joint disease and back pain.

In the report, they allege that some patients failed drug tests,
which Headen should have been aware of, and that he continued
prescribing the narcotics after they failed the drug tests.

In a phone interview Friday, Headen said his documentation didn't
conform to the board's standards but that he is working to improve
his record-keeping. He disputed the other charges.

Headen is concerned he's being made a scapegoat for the state's
deficient mental health system, he said Friday. Cuts in the system
have increased clinics' waiting lists and many of his patients have
been "abandoned" by physicians and have legitimate need for chronic
pain management. "My commitment is to help serve the underserved. I
have hurt no one who's followed my instructions," Headen said. "I
have not violated any (Drug Enforcement Agency) laws."

During the time he practiced in Reidsville, he ended treatment with
more than 150 patients who violated their treatment contracts or
showed signs of abuse. He said he still discharges an average of two
patients a week for violating their patient agreements.

The five patients referred to in the board's list of allegations were
exceptions. He said the narcotics prescribing course the board
ordered him to take made him feel more comfortable with prescribing
medication for chronic pain. He felt compelled to treat patients who
came to him for help, he says. "It wasn't my intention to defy (the
board)," he said. Headen also responds to the allegations on a
personal blog he keeps with Squarespace under the screen name "HEADoc."

"In the new office all patients with suspected addiction problems
receive routine drug screening. The HEADoc knows that discharging
those who violate their agreement with referrals to places they won't
even go to or won't accept them anyway is a futile gesture but it
puts him in compliance with the Board. Those patients will return to
that pool of patients doctors have been conditioned to avoid until
another doctor accepts the risk of trying to treat one of their many
problems," Headen writes.

Headen received his medical degree in 1992 from the medical school at
the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.