Alcohol Detox

What is Alcohol Detox?

Alcohol detox should be the first step in a comprehensive treatment program for alcoholism. Many factors need to be considered when developing an alcohol detox medication protocol. Issues such as age, medical problems, length and frequency of alcohol use, and psychosocial dynamics all need to be considered. An alcohol detox treatment protocol must manage all symptoms associated with the alcohol withdrawal. The potential, life-threatening nature of alcohol detox requires that this be carried out under close medical monitoring in a medical detox unit. The best type of alcohol detox facility will be a medically monitored unit, with 24-hour supervision by nurses, physicians, psychiatrists, and therapists all certified in addiction medicine.

Alcohol Detox Symptoms

Physical withdrawal from advanced alcohol abuse can be physically traumatic and uncomfortable. Though the symptoms may vary in intensity and type, they can include sweats, nausea, vomiting, tremors, anxiety, depression, fatigue, loss of appetite, headaches, hallucinations, insomnia, and the possibility of convulsions and seizures. Medication can help minimize, and in some cases almost eliminate, the symptoms associated with alcohol withdrawal.

Alcohol Detox - Just the Beginning of Alcohol Addiction Treatment

Alcohol detox is only the first step towards recovering from the disease of alcoholism. Once the alcohol has been eliminated from the body, a patient begins the hard work of recovery -- management of alcohol cravings, education about the disease of alcoholism, facing one’s personal history, and learning the tools of recovery to make sobriety possible. Research has demonstrated that detox alone will not halt the disease of alcoholism. The majority of people who go through detox without receiving treatment will generally end up drinking again.

The average length of time spent in an alcohol detox program is between three and seven days. A residential alcohol treatment facility that also offers a medical detox unit provides the safest and most effective way to detox. Research indicates that the smoothest transition from detox to treatment occurs within the same treatment facility. This eliminates the search for a compatible treatment program after detox and improves the chances that the patient will indeed get the alcohol treatment needed.