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'Rapid Detox'
Breaks Drug Habits Quickly
By Jennifer Thomas, HealthScoutNews
Errol Dodson's drug addiction began with a
prescription for Vicodin to help treat pain
in his shoulder, knees, ankles and ribs
caused by weightlifting and wrestling
injuries.
A few years later, Dodson
realized he was hooked. He was spending $400 a
week buying Vicodin, Lortabs and OxyContin on
the black market. In the morning, he felt like
he had the flu until he popped a pill.
"I hated myself for
letting this happen," says the 33-year-old
industrial mechanic from Greenwood, Ind. "I was
so ashamed. I was isolating myself from friends
and family. I knew I had to get help."
Dodson checked himself
into a two-week drug detoxification center. A
few days after getting out, he gave into his
cravings and started taking the painkillers
again.
In February, Dodson
decided to try a new and controversial drug
treatment called "rapid detox," which promises
to get you through drug withdrawal in a mere 48
hours. It also promises far less pain and
discomfort because you're under general
anesthesia during the worst of it.
Rapid detox is touted as
a way to kick opiates, including heroin,
morphine and methadone, as well as opiate
prescription painkillers such as OxyContin,
Percocet, Vicodin and Lortabs. Practitioners
estimate there are about a dozen rapid detox
centers around the country.
"I have detoxed attorneys
and doctors on a Friday and they are back at
work on a Monday and seeing patients or clients
on Tuesday," says Dr. Rick Sponaugle, chief of
anesthesiology at Helen Ellis Memorial Hospital
in Tarpon Springs, Fla. and director of Florida
Detox, located in the hospital. "We take them
through the detox in a more humane way and what
I believe is a less dangerous way."
While advocates say the
procedure is highly effective, skeptics caution
that little research has been done comparing the
effectiveness of rapid detox versus traditional
methods.
Critics also point out
the high costs of the procedure — Dodson paid
about $10,000 — which is not covered by most
insurance companies, and the risk posed by
general anesthesia.
"Rapid detox is providing
a service which has some dangers, so it's kind
of hard to justify something that is so
expensive," says Dr. Michael Miller, medical
director of the NewStart Program at Meriter
Hospital Program in Madison, Wisc.
Here's how rapid detox
works:
At Florida Detox, the
patient is admitted into the hospital, where
they undergo psychological testing and a urine
test to determine what drugs are in their
system.
The client is then given
general anesthesia for about three hours, during
which time he or she is given a dose of
Naltrexone, a non-addictive drug.
When a person takes
opiates, the drug attaches to receptors in the
brain, leading to the feeling of being "high."
Naltrexone, known as a narcotic antagonist,
blocks the opiates from attaching to receptors.
Patients are then given a
sedative intravenously to help them sleep
through the night. By the following afternoon,
they are usually ready to go home, though
Sponaugle often keeps them in the hospital for
another day.
After the detox, patients
continue to take Naltrexone tablets daily for
several weeks to two years. Sponaugle highly
recommends that patients get involved with a
12-Step program or other therapy to help them
remain drug-free.
"Ongoing psychological
treatment is so important," he says. "Unless
they receive that spiritual healing, they will
probably relapse."
During the six years
Florida Detox has been in business, Sponaugle
has detoxed about 400 patients. According to
company information, about 75% of patients stay
drug-free for six months. About 50% to 60% stay
clean for one year or more.
After the rapid detox,
Dodson, like other patients, felt somewhat achy
and nauseous, but the withdrawal symptoms
weren't nearly as severe as in traditional
detox.
In traditional detox, a
drug addict often has to endure two to 10 days
of abdominal pain, tremors, vomiting and severe
muscle aches that comes with drug withdrawal.
Dodson recalled two weeks
of sheer agony. "It was a horrible experience,"
he says. "It felt like snakes were trying to
crawl out of my body. I had uncontrollable leg
movement. I couldn't get out of bed."
Miller, secretary of the
American Society of Addiction Medicine, says
that not every addict undergoes so much
discomfort. There are new drugs to take the edge
off during ordinary detox — drugs that cost
significantly less and are less risky than
Naltrexone.
Naltrexone has been known
to cause side-effects including delirium and
confusion in some people. And there is always
some risk when a person is put under general
anesthesia.
But Miller says is the
more important issue is not the detox method,
but what kind of treatment people are able to
access afterwards to help them stay off drugs.
"Detox is only the first
step, and detox in and of itself resolves no
cases of addiction," he says. "The controversies
which surround rapid detoxification methods miss
the basic point, that regardless of the method
of detoxification used, patients with opiate
dependence face great challenges, and they need
to have their addiction treated not simply their
withdrawal treated."
After two days in
Florida, Dodson returned home to Indiana feeling
more hopeful than ever. Since he had the
procedure done in early February, he says he's
had no desire to take drugs.
Sponaugle says he would
like to eventually wean him off the Naltrexone,
because the drug interferes with the ability to
experience a "natural" high from the body's own
endorphins.
"If you have the
willingness to put the drugs behind you and bury
it, then rapid detox will work for you," Dodson
says.
"Rapid detox saved my
life." |
