Outcomes of opiod abstinence after ultra-rapid opiate detoxification (UROD) under general anaesthesia

Opiod dependency has serious socioeconomic disadvantages in addition to physical damage. Various methods are used to increase abstinenece rate of opiod dependency, among which UROD under general anesthesia is the new one which leads to reduce withdrawal syndrome and symptoms. This cross-sectional study was done to evalute opiod abstinence rate by UROD on 121 patients referred to Khorramabad Shohada Ashayer hospital in 2005. After interview and obtaining written informed consents, all patients underwent general anaesthesia for 5 hours with 0-25 to 0.5 mg/kg IV Naloxane. Then all patients followed at 4-6 months after UROD for relapse of addiction by self report and three coincidental tests of addiction. Data was analyzed by SPSS software version 9.1. The results showed that opiod abstinence rate at a 4-6 month follow up among 104 eases out of 121 addicts undergone UROD was 86.5%. Abstinence rate had no significant relationship with age, level of education, duration, way of use and kind of opiod, but it had a significant relation with employment status(p<0.001). It seams that UROD can reduce the withdrawal syndrome and symptoms, and prevents the relaps of addiction.