December 12, 2006 11:05:42 AM

Waismann Method Successfully Treating Opiate Dependent Patients

Detoxification from Severe Morphine and Methadone Levels

Waismann Method of Detoxification Successfully Treats Severe Morphine and Methadone Levels While Leaving Patients With Reduced Pain

The Waismann Method of Opiate Detoxification announced today the successful treatment of two patients taking dangerously high doses of prescription pain-relieving drugs. Both patients are now opiate-free and in less pain than they were prior to detoxification.

The first patient suffered from chronic pain and had been taking extraordinarily high doses of a number of opiates, including OxyContin, Fentanyl, Actiq and intraspinal morphine daily, prior to detoxification. His total dose was the equivalent of 40,000 milligrams (mgs) of oral morphine, or 6000 Vicodin every day. The other patient, who wishes to remain anonymous, had previously taken about 800 mgs of methadone every day. In both cases, the severely dependent patients had followed precise doses prescribed by their physicians, according to Dr. Clifford Bernstein, medical director of the Waismann Method.

"After the thousands of procedures I have performed to detox patients dependent on opiates, these were the most extreme cases I have encountered," explained Dr. Bernstein. "By taking these tremendous levels of narcotics, both patients could have died. To put it into perspective, most facilities will refuse to treat a dependency to methadone exceeding 100 mgs a day due to the sheer magnitude of the withdrawal. Our patients were taking eight to 100 times that amount. These cases represent clear negligence by many in the medical community to over-prescribe opiates for pain patients, putting them in an even more precipitous position."

Many patients who become dependent on painkillers hesitate to get treatment for fear that their pain will be unbearable without the drugs; however, for most patients who undergo detoxification, the underlying pain is remarkably less once they are off the drugs. Both of the above mentioned patients are now opiate-free and report having less pain than they had while on their extremely high doses of pain medicines, due to the phenomenon known as hyperalgesia, in which the use of the opiate medications increases sensitivity to pain. Dr. Bernstein notes that many patients who are dependent on prescription-painkillers experience hyperalgesia, causing a cycle in which taking the drugs to relieve the pain in fact makes the pain increase, and patients and their physicians then believe that more and more medication is needed to address the worsening pain. Once detoxification clears the opiates from the body, patients are frequently surprised to realize that their pain is much less severe than they had thought, and sometimes find that they no longer need pain medication at all. In addition, Dr. Bernstein notes that both patients and physicians often confuse the symptoms of withdrawal with the underlying pain condition, and will continue increasing the amounts of pain medication to avoid the pain of withdrawal, rather than for the pain that caused them to start using the medications initially.

According to Dr. Bernstein, the treatment of patients taking such excessive doses of opiates using anesthesia-assisted detoxification, also known as rapid detox, marks a medical phenomenon that paves the way for other chronic pain patients taking opiates like OxyContin, Vicodin, Percocet, Lorcet who are facing dependency. Today, rapid detox is often condemned by the medical community because of the number of practitioners not following a safe and appropriate protocol.

"Clearly these patients could never have stopped taking the narcotics without medical intervention; the withdrawal symptoms would have been debilitating and unbearable," said Dr. Bernstein. "These success stories are a testament to the medical potential of anesthesia-assisted detoxification to help these people get their lives back. If not for rapid detox, these patients would probably have never been treated, and we believe they have the right to a drug free life. People suffering dependency on painkillers deserve to know that rapid detox is a viable option."

About the Waismann Method

Drs. Clifford A. Bernstein and Michael Lowenstein use the exclusive Waismann Method of Neuro-Regulation to treat opiate dependency. Performed in a hospital intensive care unit, the Waismann Method involves cleansing the opiate receptors in the patient's brain of the narcotics while the patient is under anesthesia. During the procedure, the patient will experience no conscious withdrawal, and will be able to return home within days. 75 percent of the prescription drug dependent patients who are treated with the Waismann Method remain drug free after one year.

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