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A drug that cures alcoholism may be the next anti-anxiety medication

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Re: A drug that cures alcoholism may be the next anti-anxiety medication

#31

Post by anon9001 »

teirce wrote: post #25
Quequau wrote: post #7

Given the extremely strong negative reaction to alcohol that patients who are taking Disulfiram experience and given that this is apparently the sole effect that alcohol abuse cessation treatment using it relies on, it is my belief that the treatment is unconscionable and inhumane. I quit drinking after more than 25 years of problematic drinking using naltrexone (The Sinclair Method) and, given my experience with alc…

One anecdote to another: Naltrexone isn't all that different from what you're describing Disulfiram as here - it's an opiod blocker so when you drink you get the poison and not the happy chemicals. That doesn't help with addiction, it's subjecting yourself to negative effects / conditioning for drinking. Naltrexone doesn't work for me. It is not very effective for some people.

No post body was provided.

Re: A drug that cures alcoholism may be the next anti-anxiety medication

#32

Post by [deleted] »

trompetenaccoun wrote: post #29
jrapdx3 wrote: post #27

Disulfiram is a very familiar and very old line drug. It doesn't (directly) stop people from drinking alcohol, but just makes it very unpleasant. Disulfiram interferes with the breakdown of the normal metabolic products of alcohol, which cause nausea, headache, flushing, sweating and other autonomic symptoms. With large amounts of alcohol the interaction can be dangerous, rarely even fatal. But the article is reporti…

Being unable to tolerate drinking alcohol is the norm, not the other way around. There are a lot of people around the world who have an alcohol intolerance or "allergy", interestingly the exact same effect you experience when taking this drug. Trust me, from personal experience you're not going to forget . There's a reason they treat addicts with this.

[deleted]

Re: A drug that cures alcoholism may be the next anti-anxiety medication

#33

Post by throwuxiytayq »

jrapdx3 wrote: post #27

Disulfiram is a very familiar and very old line drug. It doesn't (directly) stop people from drinking alcohol, but just makes it very unpleasant. Disulfiram interferes with the breakdown of the normal metabolic products of alcohol, which cause nausea, headache, flushing, sweating and other autonomic symptoms. With large amounts of alcohol the interaction can be dangerous, rarely even fatal. But the article is reporti…

Lots of people with mental problems already take medication that you can't use alcohol with. It's not such a big deal, unless alcoholism is involved.

Re: A drug that cures alcoholism may be the next anti-anxiety medication

#34

Post by eurasiantiger »

anon9001 wrote: post #31
teirce wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One anecdote to another: Naltrexone isn't all that different from what you're describing Disulfiram as here - it's an opiod blocker so when you drink you get the poison and not the happy chemicals. That doesn't help with addiction, it's subjecting yourself to negative effects / conditioning for drinking. Naltrexone doesn't work for me. It is not very effective for some people.

Quoted post unavailable.

As long as it’s actual medicine and not street pills laced with fentanyl.

Re: A drug that cures alcoholism may be the next anti-anxiety medication

#35

Post by xanaxagoras »

There is absolutely no sense in which antabuse "cures alcoholism", I really can't think of a worse way to put that. All it does is cause a violent physical reaction when alcohol is consumed.

Alcoholism is an umbrella term for 2 co-occurring disorders, one physical and one mental. On the physical side, alcohol produces an allergy which manifests as an intense physical craving for more alcohol - craving in the sense of a physiological need, which the alcoholic experiences on equal footing as a need for food, water or oxygen. The mental side of things (often referred to in AA as a spiritual ailment) is a sort of compulsive disorder in which the alcoholic becomes absolutely obsessed with proving to himself and others that he can "drink normally". The obsession is why the first drink is taken and the allergy is why it will never be enough.

Now, the allergy is relieved immediately by removing the allergen, say by going to rehab or drying out at home, but as anyone who has spent any time at all around one of us knows, this purely physical "sobriety" is usually short lived if the mental obsession is left untreated. The proposition of antabuse is basically identical. Everyone I've ever known who took antabuse simply stopped X days ahead of a relapse. It is completely useless.

As for whether or not it alleviates anxiety in rodents, I will leave that to the people who are studying it.

Re: A drug that cures alcoholism may be the next anti-anxiety medication

#36

Post by xanaxagoras »

anon9001 wrote: post #31
teirce wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One anecdote to another: Naltrexone isn't all that different from what you're describing Disulfiram as here - it's an opiod blocker so when you drink you get the poison and not the happy chemicals. That doesn't help with addiction, it's subjecting yourself to negative effects / conditioning for drinking. Naltrexone doesn't work for me. It is not very effective for some people.

Quoted post unavailable.

Xanax is about the worst choice for this because the half life is so short. Most often people receive ativan or librium for the taper you describe.

Re: A drug that cures alcoholism may be the next anti-anxiety medication

#38

Post by [deleted] »

anon9001 wrote: post #31
teirce wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One anecdote to another: Naltrexone isn't all that different from what you're describing Disulfiram as here - it's an opiod blocker so when you drink you get the poison and not the happy chemicals. That doesn't help with addiction, it's subjecting yourself to negative effects / conditioning for drinking. Naltrexone doesn't work for me. It is not very effective for some people.

Quoted post unavailable.

[deleted]

Re: A drug that cures alcoholism may be the next anti-anxiety medication

#40

Post by throawayAlcohol »

I logged out and made a throwaway because I'm somewhat sad to see the responses here. While it isn't helpful to every alcoholic, and should never be forced upon any alcoholic at all, it is to some. It's the alcohol equivalent of suboxone, for better and worse. You cannot force an addict of either sort to recover until the person wants to, for sure, I've been there.

I chose to seek Antabuse of my own volition some years ago after failing repeatedly with every other method including naltrexone and rehab. It worked for me brilliantly to stop my brain from sabotaging my life. Humans are not immune to the biological and evolutionary mechanisms that every other animal also suffers from, and there's just as much no reason to ignore things that can work.

I know this'll just get labeled as shill post since it's anon throwaway, but I promise I'm not. It does work for some people and gave me my life back. Maybe not that many, but more than zero.

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