This blog often discusses different tactics used to treat drug and alcohol abuse. One of the most common tactics is detoxification, or detox. Detox occurs at hospitals or rehab centers and involves removing toxins (alcohol and/or drugs) from people’s bodies.
What is detox like? Well, detox often uses medication-assisted treatment, or MAT. MAT is treatment that uses medication to treat drug and alcohol addiction. It can be especially important to try to curb the withdrawal symptoms people often experience when they try to stop using alcohol or a specific drug.
Withdrawal can be painful. It can cause anxiety, insomnia, nausea, sweating, and other uncomfortable side effects.
Withdrawal can also be dangerous, even deadly. For example, if people drink a lot of alcohol every day, if they stop drinking entirely and immediately, they might develop a condition known as delirium tremens (also known as the DTs or the shakes).
Because of this potential danger, experienced hospitals, rehab centers, and programs often use MAT to treat their patients more comfortably and safely. Some of the medications they might use include:
- Methadone. This drug is similar to many opioid drugs of abuse (such as heroin, fentanyl, codeine, morphine, oxycodone, and hydrocodone), so using methadone and decreasing its dosages might be less of a shock to the users’ systems than ending all drugs abruptly.
- Naltrexone. Also similar to opioids, naltrexone doesn’t produce withdrawal symptoms when users stop taking it. An injectable form of the drug, Vivitrol, might be harder to abuse than other drugs.
- Buprenorphine. Medical professionals also use this drug for people who have abused prescription opioids and heroin. Buprenorphine is sometimes combined with another drug, naloxone, to form a drug known as Suboxone.
- Disulfiram (brand name: Antabuse). People who use disulfiram and drink alcohol can become sick.
These drugs join other medications such as naloxone, a drug that can block the effects of opioids. Medication, then, can be an important part of detox. But, it’s not the only part of detox.
How Does the Detox Process Work?
It is impossible to say that the steps of detox are the same for everyone or that they will work the same way for everyone. People are different, their physical and psychological needs are different, and their substance use disorder is likely different.
There are, however, certain aspects of detox that are common for many people. Some of these aspects are:
- Physical and psychological examinations
- Medication-assisted treatment, or MAT
- Preparation for rehab
The first step, physical and psychological examinations, sound as if they’re self-explanatory but are so incredibly important. Medical and therapeutic professionals at drug and rehab facilities need to understand what their clients need and want. Examinations will help them better understand these needs and wants.
After these examinations, the professionals work their clients to create treatment plans tailored to suit each individual. The more the professionals understand their clients’ physical and psychological needs, the more effective treatment plans they can create.
The treatment plans can include the medication-assisted treatment mentioned earlier. This treatment can last varying amounts of time. For people addicted to benzodiazepines (benzos), addiction expert Dr. C. Heather Ashton has created a number of schedules that help people taper from benzos. These schedules often involve using medication to help with withdrawal symptoms while the people taper from benzos.
Rehab professionals often use other drugs in detox. For example, they might prescribe benzodiazepines (benzos) to relieve anxiety in people who are undergoing detox procedures for alcohol. Counselors might also work with these people to address such anxiety and other psychological issues.
These medical interventions partly answer the question, “What is detox like?” and illustrate that people undergoing detox and medication-assisted treatment often receive other types of care, such as therapy, to help them through this time.
Effective detox treatment doesn’t exist in a vacuum, either. Attending an inpatient rehab center for detox can be an especially effective way to attain detox and treatment because it offers a one-stop shop where people can find detox and treatment together under one roof.
Clients who attend this type of inpatient center don’t have to make separate insurance arrangements, complete enrollment paperwork for two places, undergo physical examinations twice, or even travel to two separate places. They don’t have to transfer records from their doctors and therapists or work to establish rapports with different professionals. Professionals at inpatient detox centers know their clients well and have established histories that can help them discover which treatments work (and make corrections if they don’t work).
This is not to say that inpatient rehab is the only option, however. Outpatient rehab can work for people who can’t attend inpatient rehab. This treatment protocol, too, often involves using drugs and therapy to help people detox from drugs more safely and comfortably than they would if they quit using drugs on their own without any outside help.
When it comes to detox, it’s impossible to say what will work for one person or another. Seeking professional help is one way to determine what will work. This is yet additional proof that drug and alcohol abuse is a complex condition that often requires equally complex treatment.
