Medications Can Help Keep Alcoholics Sober. Why Are They Being Ignored?
quillette.com
Affordable, safe, generic anticonvulsants restore homeostasis to the brains of chronic drinkers, but they are not being promoted.

If you or one of your loved ones is struggling with this its worth knowing and worth asking your doctor about. Article mainly discusses generic anticonvulsants that have proven beneficial, but there are others such as Naltrexone that can also be helpful.

  • fubo@lemmy.world
    56·
    1 year ago

    However, there already are three FDA-approved medications for alcoholism: disulfiram, naltrexone, and acamprosate. While probably not as effective at maintaining long-term abstinence as NBACs, they still provide benefits—yet they too are grossly underutilized.

    These three drugs work in completely different ways, by the way.

    Disulfiram gets the patient to stop drinking alcohol by causing the body to accumulate poisonous acetaldehyde — causing drunkenness to rapidly become a hangover.

    Naltrexone is used in the Sinclair method, and works by suppressing the positive feelings (psychological reward) of drinking. Notably, Sinclair method patients are instructed to take naltrexone and then drink alcohol; the lack of reward trains the brain to not think of alcohol as pleasant anymore.

    Acamprosate counteracts the downregulation of GABA receptors, making it less unpleasant to go without drinking.

    • waterbogan@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      18·
      1 year ago

      Yes, Disulifram is the oldest of these, been around many years, and some chronic alcoholics just drink over it and power through the hangover

      Naltrexone is the one I have heard most positive things about, never even heard of Acamprosate before.

      Unfortunately when I was in a relationship with an alcoholic some years back Disulifiram was the only thing doctors here were even aware of.