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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
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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
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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
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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