Drug Detoxification - Rapid Detoxification

Rapid Detoxification

The often painful symptoms of drug withdrawal may last for several days and can stand as a barrier to the treatment of a drug abuse problem. Some practitioners use "rapid" or "ultra rapid" detoxification methods to condense the withdrawal process into a considerably shorter period of time, about two hours, while the addict is asleep. Rapid detox patients placed under anesthesia while given treatment drugs, such as naltrexone, can avoid the extreme pain associated with such treatments, say proponents, and bypass the major effects of withdrawal. Critics argue that the treatments can be very expensive and that safety has not been sufficiently demonstrated. A 2005 clinical study on "ultra rapid detox" for heroin addicts, comparing buprenorphine-assisted or clonidine-assisted opioid detoxification to anesthesia-assisted detoxification, reported that anesthesia patients commonly underwent withdrawal when they awoke from, had a similar study dropout rate (approximately 80%), and some anesthesia patients experienced severe medical complications. Another 2005 study compared clonidine-assisted detoxification to (rapid) clonidine-naloxone precipitated withdrawal under anesthesia, reporting no significant differences in degree or duration of pain, withdrawal severity, or drug craving, with similar withdrawal sequelae, oral naltrexone compliance levels, and abstinence from heroin four weeks following detoxification.

According to a 2001 analysis of 13 Australian drug treatment trials, conducted by Australia's National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, rapid opioid detoxification was determined to be the most effective method of getting people off drugs in the short term, however long-term rates of continued treatment were less successful; in contrast, methadone maintenance treatments were determined to be more cost-effective with patients more likely to remain in treatment.