Risks: Any detoxification technique presents some risks.

Ultra-Rapid Detoxification (URD) performed under general anesthesia is a significant shock to the system and patients usually found it a very unpleasant experience. There have even been some deaths associated with URD and the exact cause of those deaths has not been determined. The fatality rate of URD appears to be between 1/500 and 1/1000. Physicians who still perform URD believe that this risk is reasonable given the fact that heroin and other opiate addictions are such a dangerous disease and therefore some risk to get clean is reasonable.

Our new Accelerated Detoxification Technique appears to provide the same success as URD but with a significantly lower risk. By stabilizing the patient and spreading the shock to the patient’s system out over three days, the discomfort patients feel and their risk is greatly diminished. We are able to avoid general anesthesia completely and simply use outpatient sedatives.

Additionally, in order to mitigate risks, we screen all patients to identify health conditions that may lead to increased risk of complications. We also enlist support persons who agree to supervise the patients during the detoxification process.

During any detoxification process there are some risks that cannot be avoided. Risks can include allergic or adverse reactions to medicines. There may be accidents and falls associated with the use of sedatives and we expect the support person to do everything they can to avoid unnecessary accidents.

Some patients may vomit during or after the procedure but our rates of this are less than 5%. It is theoretically possible to even aspirate or inhale stomach contents during vomiting but we have never seen this and we keep patients alert enough that this should not happen. There can be some diarrhea and dehydration after the detoxification and very rarely patients have required IV fluids.

Because there have been deaths associated with URD and the cause is unknown we cannot guarantee there will not be deaths from our Accelerated Detoxification Technique. However, the risks of this would seem to be very low and far less than the risk of continued drug use. Most patients find the Accelerated Detoxification Technique quite comfortable and much easier than any previous attempts at detoxification.