Sergey Litvinov, MD
Dr. Sergey Litvinov is the Medical Director at Pines Recovery Life, a board-certified psychiatrist who works in addiction medicine and in psychiatric care for people with co-occurring disorders. He sets the standard for every detox admission, every psychiatric evaluation, and every medication and treatment plan on our Pembroke Pines campus. If your situation is complicated, or you are worried about it, we can start with a call.
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The person comes before the chart
Dr. Litvinov came to addiction medicine out of psychiatry. Early on, he saw how tightly the two conditions run together in his patients, and how hard it is to treat one while setting the other aside.
At Pines Recovery Life he runs every part of medical care during detox, from the medications and the withdrawal-scale protocols to the move from acute stabilization into the psychiatric evaluation phase, and he provides psychiatric care directly during the residential stay. In the room he takes his time, starts with the lowest effective dose, and writes a prescription only after the conversation behind it is finished.
He sees a lot of complex co-occurring cases: alcohol use disorder with severe anxiety, opioid use disorder with PTSD that went unrecognized, stimulant use disorder with bipolar spectrum illness, and benzodiazepine dependence built on top of depression or a panic disorder. For these patients, the medical director has to hold both sides of the diagnosis and line up treatment in the right order.
Three clinical commitments Dr. Litvinov holds his team to.
These are said out loud on rounds, and the medical and nursing teams work to them on every shift.
Stability before therapy
No one starts trauma work, cognitive restructuring, or group vulnerability until their physiology is steady. That means a controlled withdrawal, restored sleep, enough to eat, and psychiatric symptoms that have stopped drowning out every other signal. We fix the physiology first, then therapy gets to work.
Medicate the condition
We use medications with evidence behind them: MOUDs for opioid use disorder, naltrexone, acamprosate, or disulfiram for alcohol use disorder, and SSRIs for mood and anxiety disorders that are documented. We do not use benzodiazepines long-term in residential. Every prescription starts with a conversation, and the conversation goes in the chart.
The diagnosis is the start
Two patients can carry the same DSM-5 label and still be very different people. We chart sleep, appetite, trauma history, family structure, work context, spiritual orientation, and how they have responded to treatment before. The medication list exists to support a person, and the person comes before the list.
Where Dr. Litvinov’s clinical experience runs deepest
- Alcohol use disorder
- Opioid use disorder
- Benzodiazepine dependence
- Stimulant use disorder
- Polysubstance use
- Major depressive disorder
- Anxiety and panic disorders
- PTSD and complex trauma
- Bipolar spectrum illness
- Medication-assisted treatment
Speak with our medical team
If a person you care about is in active withdrawal, or if your psychiatric history is complicated, our admissions team will set up a medical consultation before admission. No one is admitted without a clinical plan, and if you are ready to start, we can start with a call.
Call (855) 981-8935Questions we hear
Will I see Dr. Litvinov during my stay?+
Can Pines handle a complex psychiatric case?+
Does Pines use medication-assisted treatment (MAT)?+
How are medications managed during detox?+
Can my home psychiatrist work with your team?+
Reviewed by Sergey Litvinov, MD (Medical Director and board-certified psychiatrist at Pines Recovery Life). Updated April 2026.
Professional affiliations: American Psychiatric Association · American Society of Addiction Medicine · ABPN · Florida DOH License Search
