Interesting note about antabuse, it came up in a LRG meeting about why it's not prescribed much anymore, and here's what the LCSW had to say: Antabuse was designed to be used as 'aversion therapy'. The idea was that you take Antabuse, and continue to drink normally . The Antabuse would make you sick each time you drank, and gradually the drinking/pleasure association in your brain would get disrupted, and you'd develope an aversion to alcohol, like the rat who gets a shock when he presses the wrong button in a lab experiment. A silly idea it seems to me and I'm not surprised it's not prescribed much anymore.

Unless the doctor is dispensing and selling the medication from his or her office, it makes absolutely no difference, financially, to the doctor, what you take.... And almost no physicians in the US do that anymore anyway.

More likely, the physician understands the risks and side effects of Antabuse and doesn't feel the benefits warrant prescribing it. When it is prescribed it is done under a carefully controlled protocol designed to monitor and minimize the possibility of a reaction... The use of Antabuse is only a minor part of the overall program. Counseling, Intensive Outpatient Treatment, Education... The whole works... Personally, I would question any doctor who just writes you a script for the stuff and sends you on your way to do whatever....

Perhaps try a specialist in alcoholism and addiction, maybe you will have better luck there.

A word about Antabuse
 

Disulfiram (Antabuse) is an aversion-based treatment that acts by blocking aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH). When taken in the presence of alcohol, ALDH levels spike, which causes severe dizziness, flushing, nausea, vomiting, low blood pressure, irregular heartbeat, possible convulsions, depressed breathing, and has even known to induce a heart attack.

Disulfiram in the absence of alcohol tends to cause minimal effects; however, drowsiness, metallic aftertaste, and liver toxicity may occur. Antabuse can't even be started until the you have abstained from alcohol for at least 12 hours. In addition the ALDH effect is irreversible, so alcohol consumption must be avoided for 2 weeks after the last dose.

This is a serious drug, folks. Not one I would want to ingest, nor anyone I cared a whit about.

I didn't make this stuff up. You can read this for yourself here:

Krina H. Patel, PharmD. "Pharmacologic Management of Alcohol Dependence: Pharmacologic Therapy" US Pharmacist. 2009;34(11):1-4. © 2009.

I am in agreement with failedtaper. Antabuse is NOT a benign drug; quite the contrary. It has numerous interactions and possible (potentially serious) side effects.

I found that it did not take nearly 2 weeks to get out of my system. I also found that I could actually drink through it but I would end up turning red and have an extremely fast heart beat.

Antabuse is the only thing that has allowed me to have any long sober stretches. It is the only thing that has worked at all for me. I did have to work really hard to find a doctor to prescribe it, so in that regard I had the same experience as you did. I hope not to have to go without it, however the doctor that prescribed it for me is retiring and I hope I can find someone else to keep prescribing it. It is true that it is dangerous if you drink while taking it, but that's the whole point.