Why Medical Detox is not enough

Medical detox programs fail just as often as ‘cold-turkey’ methods, making it a waste of wealth and a lie to say they do work. With a success rate of less than 15%, we have to look at the fundamental flaws of the programs as a way to correct them with different programs. The following is a list of 7 major reasons medical detox does not work:

1. Medical detox doesn’t recognize and treat the brain disease that causes drug cravings using new medical developments, including the Prometa protocol and buprenorphine (Suboxone)

2. Most detox-rehab programs don't diagnose and treat underlying and previously existing mental problems like depression, anxiety, and even bipolar disorder. The usual prescriptions used to treat these problems may not help addicts and can actually make the problem worse.

3. It fails to analyze each person's individual situation and to work with him or her to cognitively realize the extent of his or her problem. Addiction counselors should be using tools like the Readiness to Change Quadrant Evaluation and then follow up, not just send them home on an outpatient procedure.

4. Most medical detox programs do not effectively evaluate and treat the nutritional aspects of substance abuse. They fail to employ nutritionists to maintain a psychologically healthy diet.

5. The current detox-rehab cycle does not include treating alcohol and drug addictions on an ongoing and personal basis for at least a year to maintain that recovery. Most outpatient programs are very short, lasting less than 12 weeks.

6. Current detox-rehab programs allow addicted persons to return back to their lives after the initial treatment is completed without modifying their environment; an environment which pushed them to begin using in the first place.

7. A lot of medical detox treatment in Canada are for "Substance Abuse" and everyone gets basically the same treatment regimen, regardless of what fancy words or categories they are sorted into. The person must admit that they are an addict and submit to the program's mandates, even if they do not fully participate in the process itself. Many people “fake it” until they can get out. Others check out early by choice and return to using very quickly.

To fundamentally solve these problems, a change of perspective is needed. We need to focus on logic at every level. When confronted with a problem, it is easy to transfer over knowledge from another field, but we must reject that because addiction is not like other fields.

We can easily start at the bottom and work out way out with the addict: designing programs to remedy their environmental and psychological problems after the initial treatments. This means extending existing addiction models by at least twice their normal length. We should be filling that time with environmental modification and job training, as well as other factors that influence recidivism. I believe this is simply the next step in rehab research: it will puncture research circles eventually.

^{Reference: www.buzzle.com/.../alcohol--drug-addiction-why-the-detox-rehab-cycle-doesnt-work.html}