How We Research and Review

Withdrawal Timelines exists to answer one question clearly: how long will this last, and what happens when? Here is how we put each article together, and what we have not done yet.

Articles are drafted with AI assistance from the sources they cite and are not yet medically reviewed. Joseph, the site’s editor, edits and publishes them; he is not a clinician (see About the editor).

What we cite

Each article ends with a numbered list of the sources it relies on. Not every source carries the same weight. In rough order of how much we rely on them for facts and numbers:

1. Clinical guidelines and official guidance, such as SAMHSA Treatment Improvement Protocols, NHS and other national health-service guidance, and FDA safety communications.
2. Drug labels: the FDA-approved prescribing information and patient leaflets for medicines, usually through DailyMed or the FDA, and UK patient leaflets.
3. Research papers: peer-reviewed studies and reviews, usually found through PubMed or PubMed Central.
4. Clinical reference chapters, such as StatPearls on the NCBI Bookshelf. These are clinician-written summaries; they are useful overviews but are not official guidelines.
5. Public-health agency pages written for the public, such as MedlinePlus, NIH institutes (for example NIDA and NIAAA), the CDC, the NHS and Smokefree.gov.
6. Patient-information pages from medical centers and professional bodies, such as Cleveland Clinic or the Royal College of Psychiatrists. We use these mainly for plain-language descriptions, and we say so when they are the main source for a timeline.

• Helplines and support services we list (such as SAMHSA’s National Helpline and 988) are there so you can get help, not as evidence.
• Rehab-center marketing pages and forums are not used as the source of medical facts or numbers.
• When research is thin or mixed (for example sugar, kava, or newer products like 7-OH), we say so plainly instead of filling the gap with guesses. In the withdrawal calculator, those timelines are shown as text rather than a chart, and a timeline is only charted when its article cites sources for it.
• We don’t invent statistics, quotes or experts. If a number appears, it should come from a cited source; if you find one that doesn’t, please tell us.
• Citing an organization is not an endorsement. The NIH, FDA, SAMHSA, the NHS and the other publishers we cite have not reviewed, approved or endorsed this site. Badges such as “Compiled from cited sources” mean only that the article links its sources.

Medical review: what we have and haven’t done

Our articles have not yet been reviewed by a licensed medical professional. Medical review is something we are working toward. In the meantime, we do publish timelines on higher-risk withdrawals, including alcohol, benzodiazepines and opioids. Each of those articles carries a prominent medical warning not to stop without medical supervision, and every article is labeled “Not yet medically reviewed.” When a clinician reviews an article, we will name them and their credentials on that article. We will not describe an article as reviewed until that has actually happened.

Our tools

The withdrawal calculator and the “When did you last use or take it?” date picker on articles place the typical ranges from an article’s sources on the date you enter. They are not a prediction for you, a diagnosis or a safety check: being past a phase does not mean symptoms or risks are over, and showing several substances side by side does not assess how they interact. Warnings for higher-risk substances are shown before the results.

Updates and corrections

• Every article shows a last-reviewed date. This is the date of our last editorial check against the sources, not a medical review. We recheck articles when guidance or drug labels change, and aim to do so at least once a year.
• Found an error? Tell us on the contact page. We fix confirmed errors quickly and update the last-reviewed date.

How the site is funded, and how we stay independent

• Ads: the site shows ads from Google AdSense. We use Google’s automatic ad placement (Auto ads), so Google, not us, chooses the ads and where most of them appear on a page. We keep ads off Get Help Now, Dangerous Withdrawals, the withdrawal calculator page, the community forum, the Community Guidelines and the Support page, and the calculator on the home page is marked so that ads skip it. Advertisers do not pay for, see or review our articles before they are published.
• Affiliate links: there are none on the site at the moment. If we add any, they will follow our Affiliate Disclosure: clearly labeled, never on articles about dangerous withdrawals, and never for products that claim to treat withdrawal.
• No referral fees: we don’t take money from rehab centers, detox programs, clinics or treatment hotlines.
• Ads and any future affiliate income never change our timelines, what we say about symptoms, or which sources we cite.

Last updated: October 29, 2026