Drug Detox

Drug detox is a collective of interventions directed at controlling acute drug intoxication and drug withdrawal. It refers to a purging of the substance of abuse from a patient's body that is acutely under the influence or dependent on the substance to which they are addicted to. The process of drug detox aims at lessening the physical effects caused by the additive substances.

Drug Detox programmes do not necessarily treat the other implications of drug addiction: namely, psychological aspects of addiction, social factors, and the often complex behavioral issues that are intermingled with addiction.

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There are typically three steps to a drug detox:

   1. Evaluation: Upon beginning drug detox, a patient is first tested to see which specific substances are presently circulating in their bloodstream and the amount. Clinicians also evaluate the patient for potential co-occurring disorders, dual diagnosis, and mental/behavioral issues.

   2. Stabilization: In this stage, the patient is guided through the process of detox. This may be done with or without the use of medications but for the most part the former is more common. Also part of stabilization is explaining to the patient what to expect during treatment and the recovery process. Where appropriate, people close to the addict are brought in at this time to become involved and show support.

   3. Guiding Patient into Treatment: The last step of the detox process is to ready the patient for the actual recovery process. As drug detox only deals with the physical dependency and addition to drugs, it does not address the psychological aspects of drug addiction. This stage entails obtaining agreement from the patient to complete the process by enrolling in a drug rehabilitation program.

Glossary of detox

Detox, or detox for short is the removal of toxic substances from the body. In conventional medicine, detox can also be achieved artificially by techniques such as dialysis and (in a very limited number of cases) chelation therapy. There is a firm scientific base in evidence-based medicine for this type of detox. Many alternative medicine practitioners promote various other types of detox such as "diet detox" but there's no evidence that detox diets have any health benefits.

Detox can also refer to the period of withdrawal during which a person's body to return to homeostasis after long-term use of an addictive substance. If you're struggling with quitting your addiction and finding the whole detox process to unbearable, then we can help for free of charge.

Alcohol detox

Alcohol detox is a process by which a heavy drinker's system is brought back to normal after being used to having alcohol in the body on a continual basis. Serious alcohol addiction results in a decrease in production of GABA neuro-inhibitor because alcohol acts to replace it. Precipitous withdrawal from long-term alcohol addiction without medical management can cause severe health problems and can be fatal. Alcohol detox is not a treatment for alcoholism. After detox, other treatments must be undergone to deal with the underlying addiction that caused the alcohol use. FREE help is available here at Teen Challenge.

Metabolic detox

An animal's metabolism can produce harmful substances which it can then make less toxic through oxidation, conjugation and excretion of molecules from cells or tissues. This is called xenobiotic metabolism. Enzymes that are important in detox metabolism include cytochrome P450 oxidases, UDP-glucuronosyltransferases, and glutathione S-transferases. These processes are particularly well-studied as part of drug metabolism, as they influence the pharmacokinetics of a drug in the body.

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Alternative medicine

Certain approaches in alternative medicine claim to remove toxins from the body through herbal, electrical or electromagnetic treatments (such as the Aqua Detox treatment). These toxins are undefined and have little scientific basis, making the validity of such techniques questionable. There is no evidence for toxic accumulation in these cases, as the liver and kidneys automatically detoxify and excrete many toxic materials including metabolic wastes. Under this theory if toxins are too rapidly released without being safely eliminated (such as burning fat that stores toxins) they can damage the body and cause malaise. Therapies include contrast showers, detox foot pads, the Master Cleanse diet, oil pulling, Gerson therapy, snake-stones, body cleansing, Scientology's Purification Rundown, water fasting, and metabolic therapy.

Diet detox

Certain diets have an underlying assumption that the body accumulates toxins that must be removed, especially after periods of over-eating or the consumption of non-nutritious and processed foods. As with alternative medicine, the 'toxins' removed are undefined and are ascribed to foods, the environment and the body's own wastes.

Free Detox Centre

Teen Challenge’s rehabilitation programmes offers free detox for all addictions, it is open to everyone both men and women who need addiction help. Wilkerson House Center in London is open to men only and Hope House Center in Wales is for women. Both are residential and the programme term is 12 months. The programme is FREE to enter, for more information you will need to complete an online application form.