comparing apples to oranges; our rapid detox is different

8/14/2019 Comparing Apples to Oranges; Our Rapid Detox is Different

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Comparing Apples to Oranges;

Rapid Detox Treatments at Different

Centers Are Not the Same.

By Thomas C. Yee, MD September 7th, 2009

Medical Director, Board-Certified Anesthesiologist (1994) and Board-Certified Pain Management (1997)

Las Vegas Rapid Detox Medical Clinic

www.rapid-detox-clinic.org

(800) 276-7021

Studies published by psychiatrists claiming either the excessive danger or

ineffectiveness related to “rapid detox” or “ultra rapid detox” procedures have often

ignored 3 salient points in the grand discussion of helping people quit opiate

addiction. These missed points of comprehension are:

(1)Rapid Detox is an anesthesia procedure and should be performed and

evaluated by well-trained, expert-caliber, board-certified anesthesiologists,

not by psychiatrists. When psychiatrists evaluate the safety of a complex

http://www.rapid-detox-clinic.org/

http://www.rapid-detox-clinic.org/



anesthesia procedure such as Rapid Detox, they lack the expertise to properly

evaluate the risks and benefits associated with the procedure. A family

practice doctor is not the right person to evaluate the safety and efficacy of

neurosurgery. A psychiatrist or psychologist is not the right person to

evaluate the safety of an anesthesia procedure.

(2)Rapid Detox is not a replacement for psycho-therapy, substance-abuse rehab,

counseling or 12-step group therapy. Rather, it is merely the first step in the

long journey of recovery for an opiate drug addict. When done properly, it

obviates the pain and physical suffering attendant to withdrawal, and delivers

the patient, free from physical addiction or withdrawal, to the mental health

professional’s office for the necessary and integral 6 to 12 months of follow-

up therapy to repair the psychological and social facets of the patient’s

overall addiction problem. Rapid Detox ideally should increase the patient

flow to all mental health professionals who help treat addiction problems

because it will bring forth those potential patients who are too afraid to go

through the gate of hell of physical withdrawal before reaching the temple of

successful psychotherapy. Psychiatrists need not fear that Rapid Detox will

one day rob them of the patients who now attend rehab centers.

(3)Rapid Detox is not standardized. What exactly happens in the treatment

rooms of various rapid detox centers might be wildly different. The



techniques, the medications, the personnel, the monitors, the treatment

duration and expertise are vastly different from center to center. In our rapid

detox procedure, these features set us apart from many other centers:

[A] We are located in a major, full-service hospital that is the top

hospital in Las Vegas for cardiovascular diseases and surgeries.

Hospitals come in many different grades and flavors; Desert Springs

Hospital in Las Vegas is a major hospital with great reputation. The

long-time Las Vegas residents know it as “The Heart Hospital.”

[B] Patients undergo 8 to 10 hours of anesthesia while receiving high-

dose Nalaxone; this is longer than any other center in the country. It is

done so because the opiate molecules, once displaced from the opiate

receptors, do not spontaneously disappear. They need to be eliminated

from the blood stream by the liver and the kidneys. That process takes

time. The 8 to 10 hours are the shortest necessary duration to achieve

adequate of the opiate molecules from the systemic circulation.

[C] Continuous one-on-one to three-on-one care. During the 48 hours

in the intensive care level stay in the hospital, our rapid detox patients

never have fewer than one-to-one care. This instant bed-side



immediate human responsiveness to any need or complaint of the

individual patient gives great psychological comfort to a patient in the

emotional vulnerable post-detox period.

[D] We pretend it is an open-heart surgery level of anesthesia

procedure, deserving that high level of monitoring and continuous one-

on-one attention by expert anesthesiologist for the whole 8 to 10 hours.

Our expert anesthesiologist does not administer the treatment to more

than one patient at a time or hand over the care to a nurse once the

anesthesia has been initiated; he stays with that one single patient for

the whole 8 to 10 hours, with a nurse or anesthesia tech also present.

By Thomas C. Yee, MD www.rapid-detox-clinic.org

comparing apples to oranges; our rapid detox is different

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