Denver Health opens what may be nation first’s adolescent detox unit as teens are often left without treatment options

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New research has found that most areas of the U.S. lack facilities that offer medically managed withdrawal for patients under 18.

along with the rapid growth of intentional and unintentional fentanyl use, there is a stark lack of options for teens.

Staff members at one facility told the researchers they don’t offer medications because kids are resilient, implying they don’t suffer as much as adults, or perhaps that they deserve to suffer, King said. Workers at another told researchers they “try to push Gatorade down them and just lay them down in a cot,” she said.

Because teens usually haven’t been using drugs for as long as adults, Gomez-Luna said, they may not suffer the consequences of chronic use or have as many accompanying health conditions that can make withdrawal more difficult, or more complex to treat.“As more and more teens will get involved in fentanyl use,” Gomez-Luna said, “there will be more adolescents that will require medically monitored withdrawal.

When no dedicated detox units are available, teens sometimes get admitted to a hospital, often to the intensive care unit, where more monitoring is available than on regular inpatient floors. But that also means teens are less likely to be cared for by a team specializing in adolescent addiction medicine.

 

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