Study Faults "Rapid Detox"August 25, 2005
Research Summary
So-called "rapid detox" methods -- which use anesthesia to detoxify opiate addicts -- are no more effective than other detoxification methods, and may be more dangerous, the Los Angeles Times reported Aug. 24.Researcher Eric Collins of Columbia University examined a group of 106 heroin addicts; one group was given general anesthesia and a high dose of the anti-opiate medication naltrexone, another was given anesthesia and the heroin substitute buprenorphine and then naltrexone, and the third was given clonidine, which eases withdrawal symptoms.
All test subjects were also offered 12 weeks of naltrexone therapy and counseling to prevent relapse.
Only 11 percent of the patients completed treatment and provided less than two positive urines during a follow-up study period. No one method was found to be superior to the others, but three of the patients who were given general anesthesia nearly died from complications.
The benefits of rapid detox "were limited to the few hours when patients were under general anesthesia, and they came with risks that should be intolerable," said Collins.
But Jake Epperly, clinical director of the Midwest Rapid Opiate Detox Center, said that the Columbia doctors were unfamiliar with the nuances of using general anesthesia for detoxification. "Our anesthesiologists have done 400 or 500 procedures on average," he said. "Experience is everything."
The study appears in the Aug. 23-30, 2005 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
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