sammymaguire

I am interested in researching drugs for alcoholism because I believe that alcoholics have brain chemistry problems, I found these 5. Are there more?

1 Baclofen. A French American doc called Olivier Amisen used this drug to blast through his addiction. He wrote a book about it called The end of my addiction. There are forums all over the internet set up to discuss this method. People with anxiety problems seem to be very interested in it.

2 Naltrexone An American dr called Dr Sinclair wrote a book about this drug. It is called The Sinclair method. Naltrexone is supposed to interfere with the high you get from alcohol. There are internet forums for this drug too.

3Topmirate. An American researcher called RJ jewell used a drug called topmiramate to beat her addiction. She wrote a book about it called My Way Out. She has her own internet forum.

4 Antabuse. Not for the faint hearted. It makes you sick if you drink.
No book that I know of. No forum that I know of.

5 Abilify/Abilify maintena injections. This is the drug that cured me. I started a thread about it called Why are the docs not talking about this? There is no book and no forum but there are little success stories dotted over the internet. Ps I might have bipolar. I am not sure how relevant that is. This drug is also an anti manic drug and an antipsychotic drug. Some people use it for tourettes too. There are no words to describe how much it changed my life. Abilify maintena injections


Have you tried a drug? If so which one did you prefer? Am I missing any?

Dee74

Whats the research for, Sammy?

D

sammymaguire

My own interest. Nothing else. I just had a profound experience with one of these drugs and I am interested in talking to people who genuinely believe that the drugs helped to bounce them out of alkie hell.

sammymaguire

Thanks but I am closing my own thread. Please do NOT post unless you are convinced that a drug changed your alcoholic brain chemistry.

andyh

Acamprosate/Campral

if you want to talk about medications you might be better off in this Forum:

The End Of My Addiction | Forum Discussing Alcohol Medication

zerothehero

All I want to say is it is definitely relevant that you were diagnosed bipolar and thus Abilify helped reduce self-medication: https://www.drugs.com/abilify.html

sammymaguire

Zero I did not develop the type of alcoholism that comes with self medication. If you re going to jump on my thread at least read it first. This is what I wrote about self medication
.( Please remember that the link between alcoholism and bipolar is not understood yet. The medical profession have acknowledged that over and over again)
QUOTE



The dual diagnosis literature does not mention this. It keeps talking about self medication but I didnt self medicate. I became an overnight alkie as soon as i developed clinical depression/bipolar. I didnt have time to self medicate. It happened in a flash. Yes your brain chemistry really can change that quickly which is why alcohol is so dangerous. The docs dont mention this type of flash alcoholism when they are recommending 14 units of alcohol a week. Now the public thinks you have to be a heavy drinker to become an alcoholic. It is not true. Your brain chemistry can change in seconds and no one knows that better than me. I dont think the docs have a clue about alcoholism.

shakeel

I have been on antabuse on and off. tried Baclofen and for lack of health insurance I stopped using it because one has to take higher doses for it to work.
antabuse deters me from drinking on the day I am on them if I get an obsession, but if the obsession doesn't go away, I would get off them and count the days until I could drink.

sammymaguire

At least you dont drink through the antabuse. . I have read threads from people who took it and drank the same day.EEK!

ps I dont know whether I trust all the Baclofen hype or not.There are some very strange characters behind the promotion of that drug.

MindfulMan

Baclofen didn't really do that much for me, but I was taking it illegally. Not to get high, but to work on my anxiety and I was familiar with Amisen's work. It made me physically uncomfortable.

Never tried Naltraxone, although my psychiatrist suggested it. My IOP doc and I thought it best to see if my cravings would continue to decrease. They drastically did, so I didn't start it. Good to know it's there. The Sinclair method is very controversial, on this site and elsewhere. It's mostly a path to "moderate" drinking. I'm not into that. I don't care for the feeling of an alcohol buzz at all anymore.

Topiramate /topamax is an anticonvulsant that's also used as an antimanic. I've not taken it, but another anticonvulsant, lamitrogine/lamictal works extremely well for my bipolar depression and as a mood stabilizer. I take it with Wellbutrin which definitely also moderates cravings, both alcohol and nicotine. I'd say that the combo definitely has an effect on reducing the desire to drink for me.

Never had to take antabuse. Again my cravings were being well managed by other drugs and cognitive tools, and this was the first time I really tried to get sober, so it was unnecessary.

I was prescribed Abilify last month, as I was starting to experience hypomania. We also decreased the wellbutrin. I loathed the Abilify. Three pills in and I was already eating like a horse, felt distinctly weird and twitchy. I have a nearly full prescription if I need it, but I don't think antipsychotics/neuroleptics are for me. Plus between the reduced Wellbutrin and the mood stabilizing effect of the lamictal the hypo mania went away.

zerothehero

For what it's worth, I did read your thread, and I can jump anywhere I want. I just stated my opinion, and I question whether or not you were self-medicating whether you realize it or not. Just because we say it doesn't make it true. Your reaction, complete with the "my thread" tone, strikes me a tellingly defensive.