Detoxification is the medical management of drug and alcohol withdrawal. Effective detoxification focuses on a patient’s safety, medical stabilization, and the fostering of a patient’s entry into treatment.
The body is generally very good at detoxifying itself, but a healthy diet – rich in fruits and vegetables — is the best way to speed up the process. In addition, certain supplements may help facilitate the detoxification process.
Evaluation
Detoxification is often the first step of drug rehab treatment. This is a medically supervised process to help reduce withdrawal symptoms and prevent complications. The evaluation process includes a full medical and mental health intake to understand the history of the patient’s addiction, as well as any co-occurring conditions that may contribute to drug or alcohol abuse.
During detoxification, the client will experience various side effects including anxiety, fatigue, and nausea. The medications used during this period include benzodiazepines for anxiety and antidepressants for mood changes, as well as clonidine for shakiness. These medications are necessary to manage the withdrawal symptoms in a safe manner.
The book reviews five British experimental public drunkenness centers and examines their goals, referral sources, admission procedures, medical care, social work programs, patient activities, discharge, and other issues related to their operations. These centers were an attempt to try alternatives to criminal justice processing for intoxicated persons. It concludes that the centers were distinctly different in their operations, making it difficult to establish a prototype operation.
Stabilization
Detoxification is an important step in helping a client begin to address substance use disorder and set the stage for effective treatment. However, detox alone is insufficient to help people sustain long-term abstinence-based recovery.
Medical detox is a safe and carefully monitored process that helps people remove substances from their body, often through medication. It varies according to the type of substance, and can be administered by a variety of medical professionals, including doctors and nurses.
The goal is to get the person through the withdrawal symptoms quickly and safely. This will include administering medications to ease those symptoms, and may also include a process known as tapering. This involves slowly reducing the dose of the medication over a period of days. It allows the body to get used to not having that medication in its system, and can prevent seizures and other serious side effects. The medical staff will also monitor the person’s vital signs and other medical conditions during this time.
Fostering the Patient’s Entry into Treatment
Detoxification services should also foster patients’ entry into substance abuse treatment to reduce the “revolving door” phenomenon and to avoid costly, medically unnecessary acute hospital care (Kertesz et al. 2000). In some settings, however, third-party payors manage detoxification and other phases of the addiction treatment continuum separately, creating the appearance that detoxification occurs in isolation from substance abuse treatment.
The human body is exposed to endogenous metabolic toxins and environmental toxicants on a daily basis. Inappropriate clearance of these toxins can lead to obesity, cardiovascular disease, neurocognitive concerns, and immune dysfunction.
At Great Oaks, we work to get people into their treatment plans as soon as possible. We offer a safe and comfortable setting to support our clients through the detoxification process. Our qualified staff will provide medication to ease withdrawal symptoms, as needed. They will monitor each client’s condition and health status to ensure a smooth and safe detoxification process. This can include monitoring blood pressure, bloodwork, and MRIs to ensure the client’s safety.
Maintenance
The human body’s natural metabolic detoxification processes remove endogenous and environmental toxicants on a daily basis. The elimination of toxins is facilitated by the liver, kidneys, intestines, skin and lymphatic system.
During detoxification, lipid-soluble toxins are converted to water-soluble molecules through conjugation with a molecule of an amino acid, methyl group or glutathione. This process requires a sufficient supply of the amino acid conjugation substrate, such as glycine. If adequate levels of glycine are not available, the conjugation process will slow down. In addition, glycine is in high demand for creatine synthesis and de novo methyltransferase activity during detoxification.
Dietary intervention has been shown to alter urinary pH, increasing the elimination of weak acids such as 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (herbicide) and methyl chlorophenoxyproprionic acid (MCPP). Increased urine alkalinization may further enhance gastrointestinal and respiratory metabolic detoxification.3
