Alcohol is a big problem for a lot of Americans. It is, in fact, the most abused drug in the country. Many Americans (53%) say that one or more of their close family members has a problem with alcohol. People who are aged 18 to 29 are the most likely to develop a drinking problem while people over 65 are the least likely. All of these problems with alcohol combined with the painful withdrawal symptoms people suffer when they stop drinking has inspired new treatments such as what is offered at rapid detox centers.
Rapid detox centers offered an accelerated detoxification treatment. All alcohol detox centers help people achieve sobriety by medically managing their withdrawal symptoms.
Typically, when a serious alcoholic stops drinking, they begin to experience painful and potentially dangerous withdrawal symptoms. These include nausea, vomiting, insomnia, tremors and anxiety, among others. Alcohol withdrawal can be dangerous and even life threatening as seizures are not uncommon in people with serious alcoholism. Many people delay getting any kind of treatment as long as they can because they cannot handle the sickness that accompanies withdrawal on their own.
Rapid detox centers offer a treatment that allows patients to get the alcohol out of patients? systems without going through the pain of withdrawal. An alcohol detox center that offers this kind of treatment will give patients medication that actively removes the alcohol from the person?s system. This does trigger the withdrawal symptoms but they are given general anesthesia so they do not experience any of them. This process can reduce the detox time from two weeks to between four and six hours.
Like everything else, there are good and bad aspects to the treatment offered by rapid detox centers. Because it takes hours and not weeks, busy professionals can check themselves into one of the rapid detox centers on a Friday evening and be back at the office on Monday morning. The best thing is avoiding the painful withdrawal symptoms. Following the detox, the patient can continue their treatment somewhere else.
On the flip side, the approach taken at rapid detox centers does have some drawbacks. People who undergo this treatment in lieu of traditional detox are more likely to relapse and go back to drinking. This is considered to be a experimental treatment and is significantly more dangerous than longer detox programs. People who get this treatment are seven times more likely to die during the detox process. This risk is increased further if the patient has certain underlying medical problems such as thyroid disease. Follow up medications are prescribed as part of the rapid detox treatment but patients often neglect to take them and that can lead them to relapse.
Because rapid detox centers are treating patients with an experimental program, it is generally not covered by insurance and is pricey. The average price tag for this treatment is around $15,000.
Quitting alcohol is not as simple as just going ?cold turkey? and having great will power. The body becomes dependent on alcohol and it cannot be overstated how dangerous the withdrawal can be. Rapid detox centers? treatment program could one day replace the current detox programs as the standard treatment for alcohol withdrawal.