Medical Detox Treatment for Substance Abuse

Substance abuse is the excessive use or abuse of drugs or alcohol to a point where the individual becomes addicted or dependent upon the substance. Substance abuse is not only harmful for the physical health but also the mental health or psychological health of the person.

It also harms the family members, friends and social life of the person. The best way to treat substance abuse is through a medical detox treatment. To know more about medical detox treatment for substance abuse, you can go through the following given information.

medical detox treatment for substance abuse

  • Medical detoxification is a process through which there is a systematic and safe withdrawal of addiction from drugs and alcohol. This process is done under a medical profession. The first step of this process is to make the patient completely give up on drugs or alcohol. After this, a careful personalized treatment is planned and implemented by admitting the patient in the treatment centre or rehabilitation centre.
  • If the case is not very serious, then this process can also be done on an outpatient basis where patients are given medications for the detoxification process.
  • Since drug or alcohol abuse leads to a certain dependency on these substances, it can be hard to get rid of the addiction on your own and this is why the medical detox treatment proves useful.
  • The detoxification process can treat the immediately body effects of stoppage of using drugs and minimizes the withdrawal symptoms. It also helps the body to get rid of all the toxins that may have accumulated as a result of prolonged or excessive intake of alcohol or drugs.

The following are some of the main types of medical detox treatments

Rapid Detoxification

In this procedure, patients are asleep under general anaesthesia when detoxification occurs. The patient is given injections to stop action of drugs or narcotics and this helps to alleviate drug addiction rapidly.

Stepped Rapid Detoxification

This is an alternative to rapid detoxification in which small dosages of narcan are injected under the skin and some are taken orally. The patient is alert in this process which is done under medical supervision.

Ultra Rapid Detoxification

This is another medical detox treatment method which involves putting patients under general anaesthesia and giving them a certain medication or drug which blocks all endorphin receptors. This drug helps to accelerate the process and pushes them to a 100% detox within a 5-30 minute period. This can be a painful process.

Outpatient Detoxification

This process is ideal for those who have mild to moderate withdrawal symptoms. This takes place with the help of medications where patient is not admitted to the rehabilitation facility. This process can take up to 7-14 days.

Methadone

This is the 5th kind of a medical detox treatment method which makes use of methadone drug in an approved clinic and slowly tapers the patient down from the usual dosage to zero over a period of time which is about 21 days.

There are many good centres that provides varipous detox treatment considreing yuor requirements and conditions.  You can even visit First Step Detox get more information on the same.