What is drug detox in Gliwice?
Drug detox in our practice is an intravenous infusion lasting several hours, given after an assessment, under the observation of medical staff, and followed by discharge home the same day. The infusion works on what happens to the body during withdrawal: it replaces fluids and electrolytes, helps control vomiting, pain, anxiety and insomnia, and creates conditions for sleeping through the worst hours.
What an infusion does not do, despite the advertising
It does not remove the drug from the body faster than the body does on its own. How long a substance stays in the system depends on its half-life and on the work of the kidneys and liver, not on the volume of fluid given. The line about cleansing the body of substances sounds good in an advert and is untrue.
It is also not treatment for addiction. After the infusion some symptoms are gone, the mechanism that produced them is not. The right next step is addiction therapy in Gliwice, and in advanced dependence an addiction treatment centre in Gliwice. Detox on its own usually ends in a return to use within a few weeks.
When is an infusion enough, and when is a hospital ward needed?
This is the first question we ask on the phone, and the most common reason we decline the procedure. An outpatient infusion makes sense where withdrawal is exhausting but not life-threatening, and where the patient can safely go home after a few hours, ideally with a sober person around.
How to tell that this belongs in hospital
- benzodiazepines, GHB or GBL are involved, alone or alongside another drug: here withdrawal can be life-threatening and treatment is counted in weeks, not hours;
- the person has had a withdrawal seizure before, even once and years ago;
- drug use goes together with regular drinking, because two withdrawals then overlap;
- there are delusions, severe confusion or suicidal thoughts;
- there is nowhere to go back to after the procedure: nobody at home, no sober person for the next twenty-four hours.
In none of these situations is a twelve-hour infusion a safer version of a hospital ward. It is a shorter version, after which the patient is left alone exactly when the hardest part begins.
What should alarm the family before a visit is even booked?
Relatives usually call once the situation has already lasted several days. Some symptoms can be discussed calmly during the assessment, others mean that help is needed sooner than a booked appointment.
Symptoms that should not wait for an appointment
- seizures, loss of consciousness, disturbed speech or balance;
- confusion: the person does not know where they are, does not recognise the household, sees things that are not there;
- high fever with a very fast pulse and muscle rigidity;
- chest pain, breathlessness, an irregular heartbeat;
- drowsiness from which the person is hard to rouse, shallow breathing, blue lips;
- talk of ending their life, including remarks made in anger.
In those situations the right address is a hospital emergency department or an ambulance crew, not our practice. We say so plainly, because a family waiting three days for a free slot is losing time that is needed for something entirely different.
Drug detox in Gliwice: why do families search for it so long?
The city's own documents describe the problem we hear on the phone. The 2025 social problems diagnosis, quoted in the municipal programme adopted by Gliwice City Council resolution XIX/321/2025, states that most residents do not know what help is available, and that the drug-related part of that offer is the least recognised of all. So a family is not looking for a specific service, only for somebody who will answer the phone.
There are fewer places left to ask
The same document gives the number of information and counselling points for people who are dependent or at risk of dependence: six in 2022, five in 2023 and four in 2024. Over the same period social work with dependent people affected by poverty and exclusion covered two hundred people in 2024, against forty-three a year earlier, and the number of families supported by social workers rose from forty-four to one hundred and fifty-nine. The gap between those figures is the point: there are fewer places to ask the first question, and many more people reaching social services in crisis.
Where we carry out the procedure in Gliwice
The practice is at Toszecka 18, open daily from 8:00 to 20:00. We run the assessment by phone and usually offer the nearest free slot, because in withdrawal a week of waiting stops making sense. We keep medical records like any medical practice and we are bound by confidentiality, but we do not call the procedure anonymous, because that would be dishonest. The wider plan for coming out of addiction is described on the page about drug addiction treatment in Gliwice.
Why does the type of drug change the whole course of detox?
The question of how long detox takes has no single answer, because withdrawal from each of these substances looks different and calls for a different setting.
- Stimulants, meaning amphetamine, cocaine and mephedrone: after they are stopped, what dominates is extreme exhaustion, an enormous need for sleep, low mood and irritability. There is no recognised drug treatment for this state and we say so plainly. The infusion rehydrates, calms and allows sleep; it shortens nothing. It is also the most common reason patients come to us.
- Benzodiazepines: withdrawal starts with a delay, usually after two to seven days, and drags on for weeks. The only safe route is a gradual, supervised dose reduction spread over weeks. A single infusion not only fails to help here, it can mask the onset of symptoms that arrive later.
- GHB and GBL: withdrawal can be abrupt and comparable to alcohol withdrawal, responds poorly to standard treatment and requires hospital conditions.
- Cannabis products: the symptoms are mainly psychological, from irritability to trouble sleeping and loss of appetite. Medical detox is not indicated here; a conversation with a therapist is.
- New psychoactive substances: the composition is often unknown even to the person who took them, so the course is unpredictable and we decide after examining the patient, not after hearing a substance name.
What does the visit look like, and where do 3, 6 or 12 hours come from?
The visit starts with an examination and a conversation: what, how much, for how long, when last taken, which chronic illnesses, which regular medicines. Medical staff measure blood pressure, pulse and oxygen saturation, and assess consciousness and hydration. Only then do we set the length of the infusion, not the other way round.
An infusion after a stimulant crash
The most common scenario in the practice looks like this: several days without food or sleep, then a sudden collapse. The person is dehydrated, has muscle cramps and cannot fall asleep despite extreme fatigue. A few hours on a drip restores fluids and electrolytes, allows the anxiety to be controlled and a few hours of sleep under observation. This is symptomatic treatment, not an acceleration of the body's own work, and not a regenerative vitamin drip.
Three options, one rule for choosing
We use the three-hour option for mild symptoms in an otherwise healthy person. The six-hour one for severe dehydration, persistent vomiting and insomnia lasting several days. The twelve-hour one for the most severe condition that still fits the criteria for an outpatient procedure. Medical staff choose the option on the basis of the examination, not the patient or the relative who called. Driving is not allowed after the procedure, and it is better if somebody collects the patient from the practice.
The same infusion with a home visit
We also carry out the same procedure with a home visit, at the patient's own address, when the patient qualifies for outpatient detox but getting to the practice is a genuine problem, for example after extreme exhaustion following a stimulant crash or with no transport available. The qualification criteria and the list of exclusions stay exactly the same as in the practice, while a wider range of procedure lengths is available: 1, 2, 3, 6 or 12 hours, which the medical staff match to the patient's condition; opioids, benzodiazepines or GHB still mean substitution treatment or a hospital ward. The home-visit option is a separate item on the price list, at a different rate from the in-practice procedure, and we confirm its price and availability when you book.
What is in a detox infusion?
Families usually ask about this afterwards, when collecting the patient. The answer is less impressive than other clinics' price lists suggest: the bag is built from what the examination showed, and for two people using the same drug it may look different.
What follows from the examination, and what from the symptoms
The basis is always a rehydrating fluid, because several days without drinking or eating dehydrate a person faster than most people assume. Electrolytes are added, above all magnesium, potassium and sodium, in amounts that follow the patient's condition rather than a ready-made scheme. We add glucose when somebody has eaten practically nothing for several days. B vitamins, thiamine among them, when use has gone on for a long time and nutrition has been neglected for months.
Medicines are chosen one at a time, each against a specific complaint: one thing for persistent vomiting, another for muscle pain, another for anxiety and insomnia that has lasted several days. None of them is given preventively, simply because the patient is in withdrawal. The infusion is not an antidote and not a version of the regenerative vitamin drip, and there is no point looking in it for an ingredient that ends addiction by itself.
Why do we not accept people dependent on opioids?
Heroin, methadone taken outside a programme, tramadol, morphine, oxycodone: with dependence on these substances we do not perform detox and we refer patients to opioid substitution treatment. This is not about the difficulty of the procedure, but about what happens after it.
Opioid withdrawal itself is rarely life-threatening. What is dangerous is the loss of tolerance: after a few days without the substance, the dose somebody used routinely can kill. Studies of mortality after detox and after release from prison show a death risk several times higher, in the region of three to eight times, with the first two weeks the most dangerous of all (Strang, BMJ 2003; Merrall, Addiction 2010). A clinic that sells a twelve-hour infusion and sends the patient home creates exactly that risk without any way of handling it.
Why we ask separately about tablets
Counterfeits that look like a painkiller or a sedative are increasingly reaching the market in Poland, containing nitazenes, opioids often stronger than fentanyl. Somebody taking such tablets formally belongs to the opioid group, although they do not think of themselves that way, and does not know the dose they are taking. Their family is well advised to keep naloxone nasal spray at home, available on prescription.
What do we check before detox in Gliwice, and what rules it out?
The assessment begins on the phone and ends in the practice, before anything is given. We ask about the substance and the route of use, the dose and duration, the time of the last use, alcohol and prescription medicines, heart, liver and kidney disease, epilepsy, past seizures, pregnancy, earlier detox attempts and how they went, and about who will be with the patient once they get home.
When we say no and refer elsewhere
Opioid dependence rules the procedure out, as do benzodiazepines or GHB as the main substance, seizures or delirium in the history, severe heart or respiratory failure, an acute psychiatric state, and the absence of any care after the procedure. Pregnancy is treated separately: in opioid dependence, withdrawal endangers the foetus, the standard of care is substitution treatment run together with obstetric care, so an outpatient infusion is absolutely contraindicated and we refer the patient to specialist care.
A refusal is not the end of the conversation. Every time, we say what kind of facility is right for the situation, because a family that hears only that we do not accept such cases starts the search from scratch.
