Drug Treatment & Alcohol Rehab

Detoxification Process Peculiarities in Kazakhstan

R.S. Zhaparkhanova, MD
B.A. Ospanova, MD

In Kazakhstan, the detoxification programme has been carried out since January 1996. In Almaty, 88 persons have been treated according to the Hubbard regimen.

Ten of these patients, men between 30-45 years old, were liquidators (involved in cleanup operations) of the accident at the Chernobyl Atomic Power Station (ChAP). Their average doe of received irradiation was calculated as 25-17 ber. Twenty-five percent of the patients were inhabitants of large industrial centers and the Semipalatinsk nuclear tests zone.

Beginning with the first day on the program, after the receipt of B-complex, the Chernobyl liquidators experienced a niacin-induced reaction marked by red patches on the skin and burning pain. Only one did not manifest this redness or other skin reactions, but his restimulations (re-experiencing of physical and emotional sensations associated with exposure), involving all organs and systems were very marked. The programme for him lasted for 33 days.

Restimulations experienced by the ChAPS accident liquidators manifested as weakness, shortness of breath, headache, giddiness, bad sleeping and depression, marked pains in bones, joints, the backbone and in internal organs, i.e. cardia, liver and kidneys. All liquidators undergoing detoxification programme felt extreme giddiness, shivering, sickness, diarrhea, bone ache and significant discomfort. Most of the other patients originated from the capital of Kazakhstan, where ecological situation was more favorable. These patients passed the programme of detoxification less suffering from pain, with insignificant manifestations and without expressed reaction caused by niacin.

The most notable peculiarity of the detoxification programme was that 25% of the patients, who lived in the zone of nuclear tests and large industrial centers, had the same clinical showings as the liquidators of the Chernobyl accident. This is evidence of the difficult ecological situation in the industrial centers of Kazakhstan.

All of the patients completed the programme successfully. IQ increased by 10 units on average, with the patients reporting a sense of cheerfulness, lightness and renewed energy.