Medically supervised withdrawal from opioids is the first step to treatment, but it does not constitute treatment in and of itself. It is difficult to find data reporting the long-term outcomes of patients who have been treated with inpatient detoxification.
Pros:
Medical supervision and expertise is provided and patients are kept day and night until discharged. Usually they are given group counseling. Almost always patients are given medication to ease the withdrawal symptoms while they are hospitalized. Some people find it therapeutic to be away from home, jobs, family, friends, and their usual routines.
Cons:
Treatment is short term. Even thirty days it is often not enough. Most times the patient is discharged without medication and because cravings continue, most find it is a matter of time before they feel compelled to give into the cravings again and relapse. Removal from the drug-saturated environment does not in and of itself, help patients to learn coping skills for resistance in order to maintain recovery long term. It can be very expensive if not government funded or covered by insurance.
To suppress the debilitating symptoms of cravings and withdrawal, enabling the patient to engage in therapy, counseling and support, so they can implement positive long-term changes in their lives which develops into the new healthy patterns of behavior necessary to achieve sustained addiction remission. - explain -