Going under general anesthesia is not an effective way for heroin users to avoid the painful, drawn-out process of breaking their habit and can be dangerous, a study said on Tuesday.
Publicized as a quick way to withdraw from heroin addiction, the $15,000 treatment involves making the user unconscious and rapidly administering an antagonist drug that neutralizes heroin’s effects.
Columbia University researcher Dr. Eric Collins evaluated three detoxification methods on a total of 106 patients, between the ages of 21 to 50.
One group was put under general anesthesia and given the heroin antagonist naltrexone, another used a heroin substitute called buprenorphine and the antagonist, and a third employed the antihypertensive drug clonidine, which lessens withdrawal symptoms.
All patients were then offered 12 weeks of naltrexone and psychotherapy designed to prevent a relapse into heroin use.
The results showed high relapse rates, with only 11 percent of the patients finishing treatment and achieving two clean urine tests.
In addition, three patients who went under anesthesia nearly died. One suffered a severe buildup of fluids in the lungs and pneumonia while another had a diabetic episode. A third patient entered a bipolar mental state that required hospitalization.
The report said lung problems such as pneumonia and fluid buildup are a risk factor with general anesthesia. While the diabetic episode and bipolar case could have occurred with other detox approaches, the stress of rapidly administering the antagonist drug and from the awakening from anesthesia could have triggered the dangerous health problems.
A majority of the United States’ estimated 1 million heroin addicts are not in treatment or leave treatment early, fearing the physical discomforts of withdrawal, the report said.
“Taken together with the results of earlier studies, our findings suggest that general anesthesia ... does not currently have a meaningful role to play in the treatment of opioid dependence,” Collins wrote in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
