Dr. Susan Stine, who trains addiction psychiatry residents at Wayne State 's School of Medicine , discussed a study that says "ultra rapid detox" using anesthesia for withdrawal from heroin and prescription painkillers can be life-threatening. "People think this [anesthesia] is a nice, pleasant way to sleep through the misery of opiate detoxification," Stine says. "This is research that's been needed for some time." Stine was not involved in the new study.