A normal detox from opioid drugs takes about ten days. Rapid detox, also called accelerated detox, is a process done while you are under sedation. It claims to quickly eliminate opioids from your body, so you do not have to suffer through withdrawal. Dr. Peter Coleman of The Coleman Institute for Addiction Medicine discusses what happens in rapid detox.
The process can be done as part of a treatment program at rapid detox centers or hospitals. A patient needs to stop using the drug of choice about six o’clock the night before to begin withdrawal symptoms. The patient is given sedatives and given the drug naloxone. The drug helps to remove opioids from the patient’s body. Naloxone is given in ever-increasing doses during this time. After three days, the detoxing process is done.
This accelerated detox program is different from an ultra-rapid method called anesthesia detox that puts a patient under general anesthesia and is given a drug called naltrexone. Most patients did not wake up detoxed, but were often highly disoriented and even become dangerous. Unfortunately, this method has been known to kill people, so it’s no longer used in most drug rehabilitation centers.
