Experts Tell Us Lindsay Lohan Will Have A Tough Time Detoxing In Jail!
Chloe Melas
After speaking to experts, HollywoodLife.com has learned that Lindsay’s detox from Dilaudid, Zoloft, Trazodone, Adderall and Nexium is NOT going to be easy!
Lindsay Lohan is going to have an incredibly difficult time in jail due to the fact that she is addicted to intense prescription drugs! We’ve told you before that the 24-year-old starlet was taking Zoloft (antidepressant), Trazodone (antidepressant), Adderall (stimulant for ADHD), Nexium (acid reflux) and Dilaudid, an incredibly dangerous opiate. After speaking with addiction experts, HollywoodLife.com has discovered that it will take Lindsay anywhere from eight to 20 days to ween off a drug like Dilaudid alone.
“Jails aren’t known for comfortable detoxes,”says Dr. Steven Scanlan, founder and head doctor at Palm Beach Outpatient Detox. “The Dilaudid addiction is at a minimum of an eight day detox but usually you would want to do an 8 to 20 day detox for something as potent as that.”
Adjusting to life in a 12 x 8 jail cell will be even more difficult for Lindsay with the added painful detox process she is about to experience.
Here’s what else our experts have to say about Lindsay’s upcoming time in jail:
Lindsay needs to be detoxed in a hospital! “She would have to be detoxed in a hospital because it is very dangerous after the first 15 days of coming off these drugs. It would take at least 30 days to detox but in a hospital they would do it in 2 weeks,” says Marilyn White, of the Realization Center in New York.
Lindsay’s jail stay won’t be medicine free: “Usually, Immodium is given to the prisoners to prevent diarrhea, and another medicine is used for nausea or vomiting,” Dr. Scanlan explains. “A few jail systems in the country have implemented Suboxone [which is used to treat dependents on opiates].”
The medications will be out of her system in 10 days: “None of those medications have a very long half life, so after 10 days the medication would be out of her system. Mentally, she’d still be craving the products, even though they would be out of her system,” says Dr. Scanlan.
Lindsay will have longterm effects: “Mentally, she’ll still be craving the products, even after they are out of her system. She will still have problems with anxiety and insomnia for a number of months. Her medications are remnants of prior attempts to get into recovery [for her previous addictions],” Dr. Scanlan tells us.
The prescription pills were more damaging than her alcohol and cocaine abuse: “These pills would require a longer withdrawal period than even alcohol, or cocaine. Depending on how long she has been taking the medication and the dosage, it might take her awhile to detox,” says Marilyn.” She can’t do it on an outpatient basis, she NEEDS to be locked up in a hospital.”
— Chloe Melas and reporting by Salimah Khoja, Spencer Cain and Toby Milstein