Why We No Longer Do Ultra-Rapid Detoxification
What is Ultra Rapid Detoxification (URD)?
Ultra-Rapid Detoxification is a technique that was pioneered in the 1980s to help people detoxify from opiates. Because older detoxification techniques were painful and usually unsuccessful, URD was developed.
URD involves putting patients under general anesthesia and giving them Naltrexone to flush all of the opiates off the brain receptors. It is always successful but it is a major shock to the patient’s system. Patients usually feel absolutely terrible after the procedure and there are some risks involved. Approximately 1/500 to 1/1,000 patients die after the procedure and the exact cause of death is unknown. There are a number of centers around the world who still perform URD and in a supervised setting with experienced personnel and it seems to be a reasonable procedure where the risks are outweighed by the benefits.
Why do you no longer perform URD?
The Coleman Institute performed over 300 URD procedures in a hospital and had no major complications. However because of the risks involved, the patients discomfort level and the high cost, we developed a new technique that would be just as successful and yet avoid the problems of URD. We have now performed thousands of Accelerated Detoxifications since 2001 and find the technique is vastly superior to our experience with URD.
Why is the Accelerated Detox Technique so much better than URD?
Our Accelerated Detoxification procedure stabilizes the patients for 2-3 days before the opiates are flushed off the brain receptors. This allows the patients’ body to adjust much more comfortably and the risks are much lower. We avoid general anesthesia, which is dangerous and has side effects. We don’t need inpatient care, which helps to lower costs. Nevertheless we have the same success rate; over 98% of our patients have completed their detoxification and have started on Naltrexone therapy. Any patients who have had a URD and have tried our newer Accelerated Detoxification technique have reported that the newer technique is greatly superior.
The Accelerated Detox Technique is equally as successful as URD but it is safer, easier on the patient, and is more affordable.