Medically-Supervised Drug & Alcohol Detox in Kansas City

Detoxing can be one of the most difficult stages of recovery. After consistent drug abuse or alcohol misuse, your body has likely built up a dependence to the substance. When that supply is cut off, your body can have a negative, and sometimes life-threatening, response. 

It’s often recommended to go through the withdrawal phase of recovery under the supervision of a medical team, so your health and sobriety are supported by professionals who have experience in the different stages of the detox process. 

What is Medical Detox? 

Medical detox is the first step in addiction treatment that helps individuals safely withdraw from drugs or alcohol under the supervision of medical professionals. During this process, doctors and nurses monitor a person’s vital signs, manage withdrawal symptoms, and provide medications or supportive care to reduce discomfort and prevent complications.

Symptoms can vary greatly depending on the substance you’ve been taking, ranging from mild to life-threatening. Because of the potential side effects of detoxing, it’s not recommended to go through a detox on your own especially for substances like alcohol, opioids, and benzodiazepines. 

How Does Drug & Alcohol Detox Work? 

Entering a drug and alcohol detox program is similar to going to any medical facility. After an initial assessment, you’ll be given a specialized treatment plan to make sure you stay as comfortable as possible throughout your treatment. Your health levels are monitored by compassionate doctors and nurses, who regularly check in with you and adjust your treatment according to your symptoms and progress.

Detox medications may be prescribed to ease your withdrawal symptoms and keep you from experiencing any unhealthy complications, like seizures or high blood pressure. Your drug or alcohol detox also acts as the first step of your recovery experience, which is often continued at an inpatient or outpatient addiction treatment facility. 

You may still be taking some detox-related medications when you start your addiction treatment therapies. This allows you to begin the important therapeutic side of addiction treatment as soon as possible, without suffering from any lingering withdrawal symptoms. 

Medications Used During Detox 

To relieve some of the side effects from the withdrawal symptoms, medications are sometimes administered to patients. This medication protocol is tailored to every person, depending on their symptoms, risk of complications, and other factors. 

For a patient going through an alcohol detox, their medications will be based on the severity of their symptoms.² For someone experiencing mild withdrawal that isn’t at risk of worsening, they may be given carbamazepine or gabapentin. 

If someone is detoxing from alcohol and in danger of having a seizure or developing delirium tremens (DTs), they may be given benzodiazepines or barbiturates such as chlordiazepoxide, diazepam, lorazepam, or phenobarbital. 

Someone detoxing from opioids, on the other hand, may be prescribed medications to relieve the specific side effects they’re experiencing. These can include:³ 

• Buprenorphine (Subutex®), naloxone (Suboxone® or Zubsolv®), or methadone (Dolophine® or Methadose®) to relieve cravings
• Clonidine (Catapres®) to treat stomach cramps, diarrhea, and high blood pressure
• Trazodone (Desyrel®), doxepin (Silenor®) or mirtazapine (Remeron®) to help with insomnia
• Ondansetron (Zofran ODT®), prochlorperazine (Compazine®) or metoclopramide (Reglan®) to manage nausea and vomiting
• Baclofen (Ozobax®) to ease muscle spasms

While some medications will only be taken during the initial detox period, some may be continued after the medical detox through a doctor-supervised medication-assisted treatment (MAT) plan. 

Drug & Alcohol Detox in Kansas City

At Empowered Recovery Kansas City, we want you to feel as supported and safe as possible as you go through the detox process. To achieve this, we perform a thorough assessment, design a customized treatment plan, and closely supervise and monitor your health throughout your medical detox. 

Assessment and evaluation

The need for medical care can arise at any time, which is why we offer comprehensive medical evaluations 24 hours a day. From this assessment, our medical professionals will determine the best level of care and course of treatment for you. 

Personalized treatment plan

Detoxing is just one piece of the recovery puzzle. After your initial assessment, our team will put together an in-depth treatment plan to help you gain the skills to achieve long-term sobriety. This includes determining if a medication-assisted treatment plan is right for you and choosing the right balance of therapies, including individual, family, trauma therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), and more. 

Medically supervised detox

When you’re experiencing the uncomfortable side effects of alcohol or drug detox, you want to be in a quiet, serene detox facility where you can heal. Our medical detox program is designed to alleviate dangerous withdrawal symptoms while keeping you as comfortable as we can. If you’re a good fit for medication-assisted treatment, our team will prescribe a medication regimen to help decrease cravings after your initial detox. 

Following your detox, our drug and alcohol detox facility offers partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient, and standard outpatient programs. Here, you can continue the progress you’ve made and resolve the deeper issues driving your addiction through therapies and coping mechanism skill-building classes. 

How Long Does Medical Detox Last?

The length of a medical detox differs from one person to the next. A few factors that play into the time frame include:

• The substance being used
• The amount of the substance
• The frequency of use 
• If multiple substances are being used
• How long the patient has been using
• Any additional health conditions

Withdrawal symptoms can begin within a day of not taking a substance, and a detox typically lasts between three to 10 days. For a patient with an alcohol addiction, the peak of the detox will be somewhere between 24 and 72 hours after taking their last drink.² 

Opioid detoxes vary from drug to drug. The detox from a fast-acting opioid like heroin or oxycodone may last four to five days, while detoxing from a slow-acting opioid like methadone can last for a week or more.³

How Long Does Withdrawal Last? 

Withdrawal symptoms are most intense during the medical detox process, within a few days of stopping use of a substance. However, withdrawal symptoms can continue for weeks or even months after the acute detox is completed. 

The length of a patient’s overall withdrawal will depend on several factors, including the substance they’re detoxing from, the amount and time they’ve been using, and several other factors. 

Some common long-lasting withdrawal symptoms include:⁵

• Anxiety
• Fatigue
• Depression
• Irritability
• Cognitive dysfunction
• Cravings for substance you’re abstaining from
• Sleep disturbance

Since these symptoms can continue after leaving the alcohol or drug detox facility, it’s important to have a dedicated treatment team in place to support you. At an inpatient or outpatient program, the addiction professionals can help you avoid a relapse by learning new techniques to cope with these difficult symptoms. 

What Happens After Drug & Alcohol Detox? 

An alcohol or drug detox program is focused on healing your body; the proceeding treatment program is concentrated on healing your mind and addressing the root causes behind your addiction. 

There are several levels of care you can enter to begin resolving these deeper issues. If you need 24/7 care, an inpatient treatment program can be a good fit. Here, you’ll live on-site and have access to a medical team whenever you need it. 

If you don’t need residential care and want to continue living at home while seeking treatment, you can pursue outpatient treatment options. These include partial hospitalization (PHP), intensive outpatient (IOP), and standard outpatient. Each type of care provides different levels of flexibility to continue to attend to any family, work, or school responsibilities.

Does Insurance Cover Medical Detox?

The vast majority of insurance plans cover all or a portion of a drug or alcohol detox program. This is because mental health and substance abuse services are considered essential medical benefits under the Affordable Care Act. 

Every insurance plan is different, however, so it’s best to speak directly with your insurance company to learn how much your specific policy will cover. You can call the phone number on your insurance card to get more information. Or, you can reach out to our admissions team, who will verify your insurance benefits on your behalf and explain them in a straightforward way. 

By accepting many types of in-network and out-of-network insurance, we aim to make treatment as accessible as possible. Fill out a benefits verification form or give us a call to see how we can work with your insurance.

Medically-Supervised Detox Program in Kansas City  

A safe detox is the foundation for long-lasting sobriety, and at Empowered Recovery Kansas City, we make sure your physical and mental health are both addressed and supported. 

By offering a number of treatment programs with varying levels of intensity, you can choose the program that works best for you, your life, and your recovery. Every patient gets a tailored treatment plan that will include a unique combination of therapies, support sessions, and classes structured around gaining practical life skills to maintain long-term sobriety.

If you have any questions about our detox center or our other rehab programs, please reach out to our helpful admissions team. They can explain the different ways to pay for our rehab services, as well as verify your insurance benefits and more. Contact us today to learn more about detox and recovery at our drug and alcohol rehab in Kansas City.

References 

1. Diaper, A. M., Law, F. D., & Melichar, J. K. (2013). Pharmacological strategies for detoxification. British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 77(2), 302–314. Retrieved March 27, 2024, from https://doi.org/10.1111/bcp.12245
2. Alcohol withdrawal. (2025, February 7). Cleveland Clinic. Retrieved March 27, 2024, from https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/alcohol-withdrawal
3. Opiate and opioid withdrawal. (2025, January 6). Cleveland Clinic. Retrieved March 27, 2024, from https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/opioid-withdrawal
4. Li, M. J., & Shoptaw, S. J. (2022). Clinical management of psychostimulant withdrawal: review of the evidence. Addiction, 118(4), 750–762. Retrieved March 27, 2024, from https://doi.org/10.1111/add.16093
5. Bahji, A., Crockford, D., & El-Guebaly, N. (2022). Neurobiology and Symptomatology of Post-Acute Alcohol Withdrawal: A Mixed-Studies Systematic Review. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 83(4), 461–469. Retrieved March 28, 2024, from https://doi.org/10.15288/jsad.2022.83.461
6. Mental health and substance abuse health coverage options. (n.d.). HealthCare.gov. Retrieved March 28, 2024, from  https://www.healthcare.gov/coverage/mental-health-substance-abuse-coverage/