Drug detox is thought by many people to be the same as drug rehab. This could not be further from the truth. Drug detox is only the first step in addiction recovery. There are two main goals of a drug detox center; to insure medical stabilization for the patient and provide the patient with an assessment to determine their needs for ongoing treatment.
The first thing that happens when you enter a detox center is a comprehensive medical, addiction and psychiatric assessment. The reason for this assessment is to determine the person's appropriateness for drug detox and what type of detox protocol should be developed to manage the withdrawal symptoms. In most cases, the assessment in the detox center is performed by the nursing staff and then by the attending physician. Once the patient is cleared for admission, the physician will design the detox protocol to minimize withdrawal. The drug detox center should have their own pharmacy so detox medications can be dispensed as needed.
In most detoxification centers, physicians will see the patient in detox on a daily basis. This is to insure the patient is responding to the detox medications or to modify the medication to relieve any presenting symptoms. In addition to the physician meeting with the patient, the nursing staff provides around the clock monitoring of your vital signs. This is imperative as a patient can incur a variety of medical problems in detox ranging from seizure or convulsions to high blood pressure and heart problems. For this reason, any drug detoxification center should be an inpatient drug detox with medical monitoring.
This is a difficult question to answer as a variety of factors go into making this decision. Some of these are; drug of choice, amount of usage, frequency of use, length of use, medical issues, medical problems, combination of drugs. For these reasons, the length of stay in a drug detox program is rarely less than three days and can be as long as two weeks. In most cases, the patient that needs to be in a detox program two weeks is someone detoxing from a benzodiazepine addiction. A heroin detox, alcohol detox or detox from crystal meth might only be three to five days. It all depends upon the individual's needs.
The drug detoxification program at Lakeview sees and treats every person as an individual. Our physicians are board certified and trained in addiction medicine. In addition, our psychiatrists are also board certified and trained in addiction medicine. Their unique backgrounds provide us the opportunity to accurately assess our patients and provide them with the best possible care within the field of drug addiction treatment.
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