Detox, short for detoxification, in general is the removal of toxic substances from the body. In conventional medicine, detoxification 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 detoxification. Many alternative medicine practitioners promote various other types of detoxification such as "diet detoxification" but there's no evidence that detox diets have any health benefits.^[1]

Detoxification 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.

Alcohol Detoxification

Alcohol detoxification, or detox, for individuals with alcohol dependence, is the abrupt cessation of alcohol intake coupled with the substitution of alcohol with cross-tolerant drugs that have similar effects in order to prevent alcohol withdrawal. Detoxification may or may not be necessary depending upon an individual's age, medical status, and history of alcohol intake. For example, a young man who binge drinks and seeks treatment one week after his last use of alcohol may not require detoxification before beginning treatment for alcoholism. Benzodiazepines are the most common family of drugs used for this^[1], followed by barbiturates

Drug Detoxification

Drug detoxification 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 who is acutely under the influence or dependent on the substance to which they are addicted to. The process of detoxification aims at lessening the physical effects caused by the additive substances.

Detoxification programs 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.

There are typically three steps to drug detoxification^[1]:

1. Evaluation: Upon beginning drug detoxification, 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 detoxification. 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 detoxification process is to ready the patient for the actual recovery process. As drug detoxification 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.

Article taken from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.