DETOX ON THE DOUBLE

A Clinic Run By Evangelical Christians Promises To Remove Drugs From The
Body In Six Hours. The Pain Of Withdrawal Is Eliminated, But Staying Clean
Isn't A Guarantee.

TARPON SPRINGS - On a Tuesday morning, tucked into patient beds on the
seventh floor of Helen Ellis Memorial Hospital, seven men and women are
asleep, unconscious from a dose of light anesthesia.

The patients' heads are motionless on their pillows. Breathing tubes prop
open their mouths. A nurse in each room listens to the soft beep- beep of
monitors, checking oxygen levels, heart rates and blood pressure readings
as medication scrubs addictive opiates from the patients' brains.

It's cleanup day at Florida Detox.

Among those seeking treatment is a business owner dependent on pain
medicine, prescribed by his doctor to ease misery after a long-ago knee
surgery. Over time, his tolerance grew to 40 pills a day.

There's a 22-year-old mother addicted to heroin who has lost control of her
life and custody of her baby.

There's a 27-year-old engineer from Alabama who, along with his wife,
cashed in $110,000 of inherited stock from her trust fund to fuel their
OxyContin habits. OxyContin is a pain pill that is bought illegally to
grind up and inhale as a party drug. No one in his family knows that he has
been going to a methadone clinic every day, the only way he could stop
using OxyContin.

All share the same desire: to wake up with little or no pain and their
addictive cravings gone.

Withdrawal from opiate-based drugs such as prescription pain pills, heroin
and methadone is treacherous. Those going through the experience say it
feels like a panic attack. The sleeplessness is bad enough without the
tremors, sweating, chills and delirium.

At traditional drug treatment centers, detoxification takes days or weeks,
depending on what drug you're trying to squeeze out of your body. Valium or
other medications are given to relieve the physical and mental stress.

But Florida Detox promises results after six hours, without pain or terror.

``Oh, Lord, yes, there's a night and day difference,'' said 31-year-old
Brent Talley, an OxyContin addict from Huntsville, Ala., a day after waking
up from treatment at Florida Detox last month.

``The only pain was when they inserted the IV.''

Talley, who lost a thriving landscaping business because of drugs, started
using OxyContin to get high in his mid- 20s. He nearly died from an
overdose in 2001.

Getting sober was hard. Staying sober has been impossible. He tried
traditional drug rehab two years ago.

``They just cut you back and try to keep you numb, but high enough so you
can function,'' he said.

Spiritual Guidance, Too

According to Florida Detox, patients can check into the hospital on a
Thursday and be at work the following Monday.

The $9,990 procedure includes a 24-hour hospital stay and psychological
evaluation that lasts up to two hours. Also included: spiritual guidance.

The seven-member staff, three of whom are former patients, is made up of
evangelical Christians who consider Florida Detox to be their spiritual
mission.

Since late summer, heavy advertising on TV and radio has tripled the
clinic's average number of patients to more than 50 each month. The
company's Internet site displays a Bible verse from the book of Jeremiah:
``For I know the plans that I have for you, says the Lord, plans to prosper
you and to give you hope and a future,'' and draws patients from as far as
Alaska.

For anesthesiologist Rick Sponaugle, who founded the center five years ago,
Florida Detox is a combination of science and faith.

In consultations, he walks patients through the science of brain chemistry
and addiction, then consoles them with Bible stories of Moses and David to
talk about redemption.

A 47-year-old father of six, Sponaugle said he became a Christian during a
painful divorce in 1991. Along with a stethoscope in his soft leather
briefcase, he carries a well-marked Experiencing God Study Bible.

``They usually cry,'' he said of patients and family members who come to
the center.

``I keep tissues in my office. If they don't cry, I feel like I've failed.''

Breaking through to the emotions of the drug-dependent is part of the
healing process, he said.

``They can feel very guilty and shameful because they're addicted,'' he
said. ``I tell them to leave guilt and shame outside my door, because guilt
and shame drive addiction.''

A phone call in 1997 from California doctor Marshall Bedder got him started
in the field of drug addiction. The doctor was creating a franchise company
called Neuraad, with plans to put a rapid detox center in every state.
Sponaugle signed on in Florida, but eventually the company went bankrupt.
He continued on his own in 2001.

In all, he has treated 700 patients.

Rapid Vs. Traditional

Only a handful of clinics in the United States offer anesthesia-based
detoxification, compared to the number of traditional drug rehabilitation
centers that can require clients to stay for days, weeks or months.

Known as rapid anesthesia- assisted detox or ultra rapid detoxification,
the quicker method was developed in Israel and Europe.

It uses the same type of medicine, such as Naloxone, that is carried on
ambulances to treat patients who have overdosed on drugs.

The medication saturates cell receptors, found mostly in the brain and
spine, that attract opiates. When the opiates can't compete, they retreat
to the bloodstream. Eventually, they are flushed from the body.

After detox, a similar medication called Naltrexone is prescribed to keep
cravings away. Depending on their addiction, patients may take the medicine
for up to a year.

Not everyone believes that rapid detox is the best method.

At the University of Florida College of Medicine, an advisory committee
several years ago recommended against adopting the treatment at centers
managed by college staff.

The benefits of quick detox don't outweigh risks of undergoing anesthesia,
which include the rare possibility of death, said William S. Jacobs, a UF
assistant professor at the college's Division of Addiction Medicine.

Although withdrawal from opiate-based drugs can be tormenting, it won't
cause death, he said.

``Opiate withdrawal is not a life-threatening condition ... They tell you
they feel like dying, they tell you they are dying, they wish they were
dead, but people don't die from it,'' he said.

Other proven detox methods also can cut the pain of withdrawal by using
certain blood pressure medicines and other drugs over a period of a few
days, he said.

Jacobs added he was concerned about one study that showed rapid detox can
cause a huge surge of adrenaline in patients.

``We don't know what the long-term risks are,'' Jacobs said.

Other addiction specialists agree.

``I think it works for what it's intended to do ... to rapidly detox people
from opiates,'' said Marvin Seppala, corporate medical director of
Hazelden, a company with residential addiction treatment centers throughout
the United States. Hazelden's closest clinic is in West Palm Beach.

Seppala said he doesn't believe rapid detox is the best method, though, in
part because it hasn't been proven through scientific studies.

Like Jacobs at UF, he said that risks associated with anesthesia aren't
worth it. Other medications are available to minimize detox symptoms,
Seppala said.

But he said he understands why the promise of unconscious detoxification in
just a few hours would be appealing.

``Withdrawal from opiates is always described as the most difficult
emotionally, plus it's extremely painful. People describe muscle and bone
pain, and they have extreme anxiety,'' he said. ``But it's not
life-threatening.''

Long-Term Success

According to Sponaugle, treatments at Florida Detox have produced no
medical emergencies. The only complications tend to be among smokers who
need extra respiratory care after anesthesia, he said.

But while both traditional and anesthesia-assisted detox eliminate drugs
from the body, they can't ensure long-term results. They don't eliminate
psychological cravings, which can be present for months or years.

To achieve permanent relief, Sponaugle said he believes that other brain
chemistry issues are involved.

Patients can become addicted to drugs in response to other problems based
in the brain, he said. In other words, they are using addictive drugs to
``self-medicate'' problems such as attention-deficit disorder, anxiety
disorders, abuse during childhood and severe stress.

The center gives each patient a psychological evaluation and follow-up
plans for counseling. If necessary, medication for problems such as
attention-deficit disorder is prescribed.

In working with patients, staff psychologist Randolph Butts also brings in
a spiritual focus.

Applying spirituality to break addiction isn't new. Alcoholics Anonymous,
founded on spiritual beliefs, includes reliance on a higher power as a step
toward sobriety.

Butts said no one is forced to participate in the religious side of treatment.

``We don't proselytize; we're not in business here to recruit disciples,''
he said.

``We have a sensitivity for the individual and respect for their
receptivity. ... Primarily, we try to witness as Christians and talk about
what our relationship to God has done for us.''

The center measures treatment outcome by whether patients are experiencing
withdrawal symptoms when they check out of the hospital.

In treating those with ``acute withdrawal symptoms ... we've been 100
percent successful,'' said Butts.

Less than 5 percent of patients come back for more treatments, he said.

One who returned was Dave, a 47-year-old carpenter from South Florida, who
was at Florida Detox earlier this month for his third attempt.

He underwent the procedure a year ago, only to start taking the pills again
because of intense back pain that keeps him from working. He did the same
thing six months ago.

``We're going to have to get more aggressive with him in insisting that he
get into a program for back pain,'' Sponaugle said.

Up to 80 percent of Florida Detox patients used to be from outside the
Tampa area, the company says. Most were attracted by the company's Internet
site, www.floridadetox.com The center began its first television ads in
Birmingham, Ala., in July, reaching into the Deep South, where OxyContin
abuse has become epidemic.

After switching the advertising focus to Tampa in August, Sponaugle said he
learned that there are enough drug problems in sprawling West Central
Florida to keep the center busy.

And after successfully using rapid detox on an alcoholic for the first time
in August, Sponaugle believes that the center can start reaching out to
alcoholics, too.

In response to advertisements, up to 60 calls a day have been pouring in.
Staff members listen to the sad stories of families torn apart, kids who
abuse drugs and people who hide dependency on pain medicine because they
are ashamed.

``Most can't afford (the procedure). But we are pioneers, we are getting
the word out,'' said John Karaphillis, an assistant manager at Florida Detox.

A Florida Detox staff member battles with health insurance companies for
patients seeking reimbursement. It has been an uphill struggle, but more
companies are paying.

Sponaugle has plans for expansion and is looking for land near the Suncoast
Parkway to build a permanent residential center. Florida Detox occupies a
small wing at Helen Ellis Memorial, with up to 16 beds, but has no space
for residential care.

Ideally, patients would check into the proposed residential center after
undergoing rapid detox at Helen Ellis, he said. Some might stay at the
residential center for a few days, others up to a year.

He wants a pool to teach back patients some pain-relieving swimming
exercises that would make them less reliant on pain pills. The new facility
could use a chapel for spiritual solace. He also wants to counsel patients
about the importance of diet and exercise in preventing relapse.

His eyes fill with tears when he talks about it.

``This is pretty intense,'' he said.