Drugs seduce. They seduce slowly, one pill, one shot, one snort at a time. They are so beguiling, so enticing, that you donג€™t realize that you are in their grip until it is far too late, until you are not yourself any more. Your body no longer belongs to you, it belongs to the drug.

It starts from nothing, one innocent try, one lie to yourself, one exultation. You lose your pains and your hurts to its gentle caress and think to yourself: ג€œIג€™m still me, I can handle it, Iג€™m the one in controlג€.

But the memory of its gentle touch that makes you forget all your pains draws you back. Again and again. Until you are the slave and the drug is the master. First you lie only to yourself, but then you start to lie to others, until you can no longer recognize yourself in those lies.

You became a different person, a user, an addict. You belong to your drug, your lover, your possessor. It owns you. You wake up thinking about it and go through life for it alone. Nothing else matters. It controls you. It has taken a hold of your soul and body …

Once you decided to get drug free and you know that you need help to get there, how do you pick where to get that help? Well, Iג€™m going to try clear the muddy waters for you. Yes, I would love for everyone to come to my clinic, however that is not always reasonable or a viable option for all. But here are some things that every one of you should consider.

The Staff - is probably the most important part of your procedure. Who is around you during your procedure and how they get you through it and during the time of recovery, is vital to how you do during the process and in the long run. How well they prepare you, what expectations they give and what support you receive before, during and after will determine your overall success or failure.

The Physicians – even though it is true that a Board Certified Anesthesiologist is a must, only a few of us actually know the process of rapid drug detox. Experience in this field is extremely important. They do not teach this in anesthesia residency or fellowship. There are clinics that just hire board certified Anesthesiologists or even …

One day, while doing one of my medical school rotations at St. Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, NJ, where, incidentally, I gave birth to my three children, the hospital was abuzz with the news that the amazing Whitney Houston was having her baby on the top floor in the VIP suite.

I must confess that I, being a lowly medical student in 1993, did not get to lay my eyes on the famous singer, but I did feel a common bond with her. We were the same age, and I had a baby in this same hospital less than two years before her.

What I feel now is deep sadness for her and, especially, for her 18-year-old daughter, whom she had while I was just a few floors below her. Whitneyג€™s death is just so senseless, so painfully early. She was a mother who left her child an orphan, and being a mother was so important to her, as it is for most every woman.

We dream of being a mother while still little girls; we play with dolls, we cradle them in our arms, we dress them and we pretend to feed them. We grow up dreaming of one …

This is a continuation of the blog by a recent patient the beginning of which was first posted about a month ago. I thought you would enjoy an update. If you did not catch the first installment, you can find it in our blogs. Well, here it is:

It has now been a month since I checked in to MDS for withdrawal from Suboxone and it is hard to believe that I am the same person. Every day life seems to get better and I experience the joy of life free from opiates. I have been very careful to follow the instructions I was given by Dr. George and everyone at MDS. I figure that my best thinking got me in the mess I was in, so maybe itג€™s time to take some direction for a while.

For the first two weeks after my procedure, I called Dr. George several times. After the procedure, I got wonderful instruction and guidance, but when I got home and real life kicked in it was a huge comfort to know that I could call and speak to him at any time if I had questions. The majority of the calls were related to …

This article is written to assist users to make an informed educated decision pertaining to the treatment options for opiate dependence. On occasions we encounter patients inquiring about drug detox in general. There seems to be some degree of confusion as how a user should proceed with drug detox.

Surprisingly, most patients choose the conventional method of drug detox to find that a daily dose of medication is still required to avoid the withdrawal symptoms. Some of these patients continue with thisֲ method of treatment. But other patients still feel restrained and not free.

For the patients that proceed with the unconventional method of drug detox, i.e. detox under anesthesia, sedation detox,ֲ  anesthesia assisted detox, or rapid detox, it is clear that the user chose to stay free of drugs.

In both situations, critical issues related to family, employment, financial, andֲ health surface as very powerful and determining factors to make lifetime commitments to be again a functional branch in society.

Below, find the differences between each method of drug detox, whether conventional or non-conventional.

Conventional Drug Detox:

Enrolling in one of these conventional drug detox treatment programs requires a lengthy stay at that facility. Anywhere from 2-4 weeks of …

Naltrexone drug therapy, an opiate blocker treatment, done afterֲ  rapid detox treatment, is an essential component in achieving a better success rate for a drug free life style.ֲ ֲ Three types of Naltrexone drugֲ dosing are available:

Naltrexone Pellet

Naltrexone is an opiate blocker that reduces cravings tremendously. ֲ At our drug detox center we administer Naltrexone pellet underneath the skin to delivers the medicine gradually over 2 months. This is a minor operative procedure. Naltrexone prevents opiates from getting back into the brain receptors and thus maintains abstinence for 2 months.ֲ  We recommend repeating the Naltrexone pellet implant every 2 months over a period of six to twelve months. ֲ I say that because the patientג€™s thought process will take a few months to change to the new sober life style. The brain neurons require long time for healing. The implantable pellet is usually less expensive than the injectable form of Naltrexone.

Naltrexone Intramuscular Injection

Another form of Naltrexone post detox maintenance is an intramuscular injection of Vivitrol. The injection ensures protection from opiates for one month only. One intramuscular shot is expensive as it costs approximately $1200.00 per month.ֲ  At MDS we include the Naltrexone pellet implant to …

I would like to share this article with you that was published in the Journal of Addiction Medicine March 2011 – Volume 5 – Issue 1 – pp 28-35
The article is a result from the National Epidemiological Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions.

The abstract result is as follows:
Objectives: To study substance use and psychiatric disorders among prescription opioid users, heroin users, and non-opioid drug users in a national sample of adults.

Methods: Analyses of data from the 2001 to 2002 National Epidemiological Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (N = 43,093).

Results: Four groups were identified among 9140 illicit or non-prescribed drug users: heroin-other opioid users (1.0%; used heroin and other opiates), other opioid-only users (19.8%; used other opiates but never heroin), heroin-only users (0.5%; used heroin but never other opiates), and non-opioid drug users (78.7%; used drugs but never heroin or other opiates). After adjusting for variations in socioeconomic characteristics, history of substance abuse treatment, and familial substance abuse, heroin-other opioid users had greater odds of several substance use disorders (SUDs; cocaine, hallucinogen, sedative, amphetamine, and tranquilizer) when compared with the other groups; heroin-only users had reduced odds of sedative and tranquilizer use disorders when compared …