The End of My Addiction, by Olivier Ameisen: Could Baclofen Be the Cure We're Looking For?

Originally posted by Scicurious
On February 26, 2009, at 1:06 AM

i-748b0f1b2b1ffa2065eda7db1a24daaa-addiction.pngAbout a week ago, a prof in my MRU loaned me a book he'd just read, saying it would be right up my alley. He was very right. I couldn't put it down. It's already changed a great deal about the way that I think about addiction, as well as the way I think about finding a cure.

The book was "The End of My Addiction" by Olivier Ameisen. Half case report, half memoir, Olivier Ameisen was a well-known cardiologist doing some crazy good work in New York. Unfortunately, he was also an alcoholic. After more than a decade of broken friendships, joblessness, and near-death experiences, he managed to end his dependence on alcohol using a drug known as baclofen.

Addiction people will never say that someone is cured. Anyone is, at best, "recovering." People are alcoholics or crack heads even if it's been years or decades since they had their last dose. This is because they are merely abstinent. A single dose of that drug, or even a visit to places where they previously let the good times roll can spark off a huge craving that can trigger the entire cycle again, something a recovering addict must always be on the watch for.

But what if you could cure it? What if you could just take a pill and make it all go away?

Olivier Ameisen was a good person to write this book. Coming from a well-respected doctor, the spiral downward into addiction is even more striking. He does not hesitate to open up about his worst experiences; being committed to a psychiatric ward against his will, verbally abusing friends and family who tried to help, and walking right out of rehab and into a liquor store. He went to up to 3 AA meetings a day and was in rehab three times. He conveys a life of desperation in a simple, direct manner that is incredibly captivating.

One thing he wrote about really stuck with me. He talked about the wonderful feeling of hope and assurance he felt in rehab, how he just knew that this time he would be fine when we got out. But he never lasted. He compared it to the stars who go on shows fresh out of rehab, bright-eyed and talking about what they have discovered and how they will stay clean. And they HAVE discovered something, he says. It just doesn't last. That scenario said more to me about addiction than any number of rehab and relapse reports that I have read.

So what happened? After many years of drinking, the closing of his practice, the death of his parents, and many other things, Ameisen ran across a study done by Dr. Childress, a well-known addiction researcher. She had a patient that had been given baclofen, a muscle relaxant, for his muscle spasms. The guy was also a crack addict, and after starting baclofen, he had a problem: he couldn't get high. Not only that, he didn't even really WANT to get high. Since her finding with this case study, Dr. Childress had performed a clinical study on drug addicts using baclofen, but the doses used didn't have much of an effect on craving or drug use. Other studies had been done with rats and cocaine addiction, and some findings were promising, but levels of the drug seemed too high to put into humans. It seemed like a dead end.

But Ameisen didn't know about the clinical studies. He had only seen the case study and the animal studies, and decided to try baclofen for himself. He called a friend of his who was a neurologist and asked how high he could go.

(An Aside: Baclofen. Beclofen is what is known as a GABA-B agonist. GABA, or gamma-hydroxy-amino-butyric acid, is the major inhibitory neurotransmitters in the brain, and GABA-B is one of its receptors. Alcohol is known to be a GABA agonist, increasing GABA in the brain, which may be cause of its anxiolytic effects. Some research has been done on GABA-A agonists as a possible treatment for alcoholism, but less has been done on GABA-B.)

It wasn't known by researchers at the time, but baclofen was given in much higher doses than those used in the clinical trial. They had been using 40 mg. But it turns out that, for patients with muscle spasms, the dose can go up into the hundreds of mg with very few side effects. It's about as safe as a drug can get, apparently. So Ameisen got a prescription and starting bringing his dose up.

And up. And up. He ended up hovering around 270 for a while, and then bringing it back down to 180 or so. Pretty high doses, and he had to be very careful for sleepiness. But at the highest doses, he felt no urge to drink, no craving. He also got relief from the anxiety which has plagued him for years, and which he believed to be the root cause of his drinking. After several months of this, he published his own results as a case study. This is really an incredibly brave thing to do, and is probably the first time that a physician has made their own drug addiction a published fact in a journal.

There were a couple of things that bothered me about the book. Ameisen is clearly a highly intelligent person, and his family is well-placed in French and American society. But it got to be a little much at times. I know you are a well-known cardiologist and I respect you for it. I am reading your memoir about your addiction. I don't really need to hear your anecdotes about how you know Bette Midler and Elie Weisel.

Additionally, Ameisen clearly had several monetary advantages in his fight that most addicts do not have access to. He has not practiced medicine for many years, and yet was able to afford to go to rehab not once, but three times. Though he does worry about money, and though the most expensive programs are out of his reach, he is still able to go on living for significant periods of time without ever having to reach for unemployment or welfare, advatages which most addicts never get. Still, the book was incredibly well-written and very affecting, not least for its message of hope.

Since Ameisen published his cure, several other case studies have been done, and a couple of preliminary clinical trials. Most have seen at least some success. The book ends in bafflement that more studies are not taking advantage of what could be the cure addiction researchers have been looking for for years.

And I also wonder, why not? The book was published very recently, and I still haven't heard of a large scale clinical trial for baclofen (though I could have missed it, of course). The drug appears relatively safe in high doses (as is known through its use in treating muscle spasms), and appears to provide relief from both the craving and the anxiety that drug users experience. What is going wrong?

Ameisen proposes one theory. He believes that, since baclofen is an old drug and no longer under patnet, drug companies will never fund a large scale clinical trial. There's no money in it. He may very well be right. But I've got another theory. Most researchers who work in addiction know that addiction is a disease. It's something that you simply cannot cure through an exercise of will. It's not a problem with will power or lack of faith. And though we all know this, I wonder how many addiction researchers really believe it. A lot of the resistance that Ameisen encountered was from people who could give no real reason as to why they weren't interested in a clinical trial. Could it have been the concept of a cure? The idea that you just take a pill and make it go away? It is possible that, even though we all know that alcoholism and other kinds of drug abuse are diseases that cost the public billions of dollars per year, that society has still made up believe in will power. That we think, at some level, that addicts should suffer for what they have done. Ameisen had no suffering. He just stopped. Is our society ready to accept that kind of a cure?

Of course, there is a third theory. Perhaps, due to the dead ends in the literature, researchers just didn't believe there was much future in it. There may not be. But we won't know unless we try.

I don't know whether society is ready, but I think that drug addicts and alcoholics have suffered enough. And society is suffering along with them. And on a completely pragmatic level, what harm could a clinical trial do? If it works, we have a cure. If it doesn't, money wasted, but baclofen is a safe drug, and bad side effects are unlikely. I'm not willing to hang my addiction theory hat on a case study, or a series of case studies. A series of anecdotes, however convincing, are not data. But give me a large scale clinical trial, or a series of animal studies (there are already some out there), and then I'll let you know. It may not be a cure, but considering what we have available right now, I think it's certainly worth a try.

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I doubt very much that the alcohol industry worldwide would be supportive of baclofen as an addiction treatment. There is a powerful lobby here which would forestall legislation to support change to insurance dictates regarding the use of ANY drug to wipe out their source of business. And clinical trials? They are expensive - the alcohol industry does not want to cure its customers of their need for its product.....

I doubt very much that the alcohol industry worldwide would be supportive of baclofen as an addiction treatment. There is a powerful lobby here which would forestall legislation to support change to insurance dictates regarding the use of ANY drug to wipe out their source of business. And clinical trials? They are expensive - the alcohol industry does not want to cure its customers of their need for its product.....

Dear Scicurious

I was interested to find your blog on Ameisen's book. My wife has now taken Baclofen for a few months but is not yet up to the dosage recommended by Ameisen. It has proved to be a very effective medication for alcoholism.

I was also interested to read in Ameisen's book that some of those quoted in his book consider that he has discovered the basis of "all" addiction. The theory is that addictions result from a shortage of GHB which the body needs to mediate stress. Alcohol is a substitute for GHB and baclofen is a synthetic form of GHB.

What is also interesting is that Ameisen has applied for a patent of the process he has developed for treatment of alcholism and a wide range of other addittions and psychiatric/psychological conditions such as ADHT, OCD. I performed a google search and discovered that Yale Medical School is now conducting a study of baclofen as a treatment for autism.

I think I am right in saying that all disorders which have some element of repetitive behaviour may originate from the lack of endogenous GHB. These would include the nervous anxiety/leg twitch described by Ameisen, manic behaviour, obsessive, compulsive behaviour, autism, Asperger's syndrome as well as stress and post-traumatic stress disorders. If Ameisen is correct it would appear, I suggest, that his hypothesis is quite revolutionary and far-reaching.

Any thoughts?

David

I appreciate the need for trials of medications but should that not be in respect of the safety of the medication and not its specific use? Baclofen has been around for years and presumably went through rigorous tials. Now that it is out of patent it is unlikely that anyone is going to put it through trials so that is a bit of a dead end argument.

Actually if you look at the Wikipedia entry for Baclofen it says that Baclofen acts on the brains of addicts to suppress

Please - it is really urgent (I can only underline what Kay wrote here, I've been taking b. for 8 weeks - n yes, it works for opiods!) - can anyone give me a reference or postal/mailaddress of ProfesseurOlivier Ameisen?
I am writing from Germany, thus it is quite impossible to find MD's who've read his book. Nevertheless, I can only state it IS a miracle!
and I think I have a very valuable information for Olivier Ameisen.
You can mail me, too (please peplace the at...)
projecteering(at)yahoo.de
Steve

Please - it is really urgent (I can only underline what Kay wrote here, I've been taking b. for 8 weeks - n yes, it works for opiods!) - can anyone give me a reference or postal/mailaddress of ProfesseurOlivier Ameisen?
I am writing from Germany, thus it is quite impossible to find MD's who've read his book. Nevertheless, I can only state it IS a miracle!
and I think I have a very valuable information for Olivier Ameisen.
You can mail me, too (please peplace the at...)
projecteering(at)yahoo.de
Steve

What was written about the little animals was well understood by me, being German. Tasteless - to say the least!
I still ask Prof. Ameisen to please urgently get in touch with me - its about patent rights.

You can mail me, too (please peplace the at...)
projecteering(at)yahoo.de
Steve

Dr. Ameisen's book is out now in paperback under the title Heal Thyself instead of The End of My Addiction. It has a new preface and includes case studies of successful baclofen treatments.

By mc lipsey (not verified) on 19 Jan 2010 #permalink

The book formerly titled "The End of My Addiction" by Olivier Ameisen is now available in paperback under the title "Heal Thyself"

I have had a number of clients who have been on it and they have told me that they have no desire to take heroin.

This is extremely interesting!

Yes, I think you are onto something with your idea that society might not be ready for a pharmacological cure to alcoholism. We can be a weird society when it comes to drugs -- very pill happy in some ways, very puritanical in others.

I bet the financial aspect has something to do with it too, though, if the pill is no longer under patent. Sigh.

Thank you, Scicurious, for your excellent and thought-provoking review! Like Katherine in the preceding comment I thought yes, the Puritan heritage might be a factor. Not that a possible cure or search for a cure would be willingly âsuppressedâ or something along these lines, but that people are inherently reluctant to follow paths of inquiry based on premises they find, knowingly or unknowingly, deeply uncomfortable.

regarding patent issues: if a drug gets FDA approval for a new use, doesn't that basically mean a new brand patent? That's how we got Sarafem (generic fluoxetine, ie Prozac) for premenstrual dysphoric disorder. Quoth wikipedia: "The patent for Fluoxetine has expired, but Eli Lilly was able to obtain a new patent for its use in the treatment of PMDD, which has since marketed heavily under the trade name Sarafem."

I found a real reason to hope that many might benefit from further research on the use of baclofen to heal addiction. As to drug companies being disinterested in funding trials because the drugs patent has expired, what about drugs like Aspirin and the statins? Pharmaceutical companies have capitolized on their expanded uses.

Backlofen is readily available without a prescription on the internet. For the high dosage that Dr. Ameisen, it works out to about $2.85/day. Far less than a 5th of vodka. Has anybody out there decided to just buy it and do it themself? If so, I'd like to hear how it's working.

I had read the book and was amazed ...the doctor's observations of his behavior after a binge, objective, detailed. His resourcefulness in developing a cure was inspiring. I found this to be of big interest in the book:
1. he was anxious and the drug, relieving him of that, led to rehab. Usually, he was told his drinking led to his anxiousness.
2. The conclusion of the book confirms what I had believed to be just a piece of nonsense in so much writing: In fact there are potential cures but since what needs testing can not be patented, drug companies not interested in funding experiments.

Not clear: we are told that there is no real cure but one is always an addict. The doctor seems to believe otherwise, though if he must take daily doses of Backlofen (with changing amounts?) not really made clear. Can he quit the drug and be ok without it?

By fred lapides (not verified) on 23 Mar 2009 #permalink

I have been on baclofen for 2 months. It is absolutely nothing short of a miracle in my life. I had all but lost hope of any long term successful recovery. I drank heavily for 20+ yrs. Rehab twice. As I was in the bookstore, looking for answers - as I have done so many times - I ran across Dr. Ameisen's book "The End of My Addiction". Came home and did research, armed myself w/ info & went to see my doctor. We tried it - and to be quite honest, I really doubted that this would even work. I, too, had tried Campral, Naltrexone, Anabuse - NO HELP AT ALL. But w/in the first week, I felt relief I never knew was possible. I have no reason to promote this - I can only say that is has saved my life. This is worth trying. It truly is a miracle. I can not overstate this fact.

However, I do not agree w/ 1 thing Dr. Ameisen says. He says he can go out and have an occasional drink. After what I have seen alcohol do to me and my family, I would NEVER even take 1 sip. And w/ baclofen on board, I not even been tempted. Not 1 single time.

Hi Kay

I am extremely intersted in your successful recovery just as I was when I 1st saw the artical of Dr. Ameisen. Please mail me what doses you took, because I also want to try this! Have been an alchoholic for about 4 years, and its just getting worse every day! Regards Christo Cape Town South Africa

My question is why don't we save daylight in winter as well? Why do we squander it in the morning before we have to get up, only to have it be dark by the time we leave work? We need to abolish Standard Time.

For Cantb tv -

I have gone up and down with my doses - but I have ended up at around 120mg/day. I take 2 - 10mg 3 times a day. Baclofen has a very short 1/2 life - it is out of your body in about 3-4 hours. I never forget a dose so it is not a problem to take this 3X/day for me. You want to talk more about this my email is k8tee1@gmail.com.

Anyone else want more info - I am happy to answer any questions! :)

Best of luck to you - I hope you will email - I have much to share through my difficult journey.

I am sorry, my previous comment was meant for Christo in Cape Town South Africa. My apologies.

FOR CHRISTO - in South Africa -

My comment for canb tv was meant for you.

I was very interested in the doctors article about Baclofen and wondered if it could not be used with any additiction eg. food binges? Surely it is the same chemical in the brain that would trigger this as well as alcohol and drug abuse?

Lulu - I, too, suffer from an eating disorder (bulimia) and it has no effect whatsoever with this. I was hoping baclofen would help with this, but it has not.

hi,

has anyone in the capetown area managed to get a prescription? or got any without?

By Kathryn Twine (not verified) on 03 Jun 2009 #permalink

Hi,
Where can one buy baclofen. I live in Port Elizabeth.
Thanks.

You would want to have a long think about which way round to structure the last part of the cross-sell pat

I go to movies just because the critics say it sucked this guy talks about the scenery not being real in Transformers, so freakin what I didnât realize there were big talking robots in the world either dumb ass, its a move its fantasy none of its real, just watch and enjoy, Iâm so sick and tired of these people and there opinion, maybe I should go on and tell my opinion, oh wait, NO ONE CARES!!!!

A series of anecdotes, however convincing, are not data. But give me a large scale clinical trial, or a series of animal studies (there are already some out there), and then I'll let you know. It may not be a cure, but considering what we have available right now, I think it's certainly worth a try.

I was very interested in the doctors article about Baclofen and wondered if it could not be used with any additiction eg. food binges? Surely it is the same chemical in the brain that would trigger this as well as alcohol and drug abuse?

e Prozac) for premenstrual dysphoric disorder. Quoth wikipedia: "The patent for Fluoxetine has expired, but Eli Lilly was able to obtain a new patent for its use in the treatment of PMDD, which has since marketed heavily under the trade name Sarafem."

But Ameisen didn't know about the clinical studies. He had only seen the case study and the animal studies, and decided to try baclofen for himself. He called a friend of his who was a neurologist and asked how high he could go.

I have gone up and down with my doses - but I have ended up at around 120mg/day. I take 2 - 10mg 3 times a day. Baclofen has a very short 1/2 life - it is out of your body in about 3-4 hours. I never forget a dose so it is not a problem to take this 3X/day for me. You want to talk more about

I read Ameisen's book as my wife suffers from chronic alcholism. We had tried the Joan Larson formulas in her book Seven Weeks to Sobriety and they work very well but are very expensive. I then persuaded my wife to ask for a prescription for Baclofen but as she was only drinking every three months or so we did not want to let her doctor know that she was still at risk of binge drinking, mainly as our doctors have a very unhelpful attitude towards alcholism. So, my wife asked for a prescription on the basis that she has spasms from a stroke and is now on 30mg a day. We discontinued the other medications and unfortunately a drinking pattern re-emerged. I also bought Baclofen over the internet.

We have since gone back to the Seven Weeks formulas and are continuing with Baclofen and will try to get a higher dose. However, even on the low dose there is less of a craving for alcohol and what is very good about Baclofen is that it is much better than librium for alleviating the severe effects of alcohol withdrawal, ie., shakes and tremors so that the recovery period was shorter and less painful.

I think Baclofen should be substituted for librium or other benzodiazapines for treatmennt of alcohol withdrawal both because of its efficacy and also because there is no risk of cross-addiction, and death, due to use of alcohol at the same time. Also, I don't see why baclofen cannot eventually be sold over the counter for that purpose. After all, is it not less dangerous than alcohol which is sold in lethal amounts over the counter every day?

I also tried Baclofen as I was starting a new job which involves public speaking and have always suffered from anxiety. I found that my anxiety disappeared with just 10mg per day.

I appreciate the need for trials of medications but should that not be in respect of the safety of the medication and not its specific use? Baclofen has been around for years and presumably went through rigorous tials. Now that it is out of patent it is unlikely that anyone is going to put it through trials so that is a bit of a dead end argument. As far as I can see there are no reports of deaths or adverse effects from its use and as Dr. Ameisen points out it can be prescribed off-licence by a GP.

Donald

By ddbharris@goog… (not verified) on 04 Jul 2009 #permalink

I read Ameisen's book as my wife suffers from chronic alcholism. We had tried the Joan Larson formulas in her book Seven Weeks to Sobriety and they work very well but are very expensive. I then persuaded my wife to ask for a prescription for Baclofen but as she was only drinking every three months or so we did not want to let her doctor know that she was still at risk of binge drinking, mainly as our doctors have a very unhelpful attitude towards alcholism. So, my wife asked for a prescription on the basis that she has spasms from a stroke and is now on 30mg a day. We discontinued the other medications and unfortunately a drinking pattern re-emerged. I also bought Baclofen over the internet.

We have since gone back to the Seven Weeks formulas and are continuing with Baclofen and will try to get a higher dose. However, even on the low dose there is less of a craving for alcohol and what is very good about Baclofen is that it is much better than librium for alleviating the severe effects of alcohol withdrawal, ie., shakes and tremors so that the recovery period was shorter and less painful.

I think Baclofen should be substituted for librium or other benzodiazapines for treatmennt of alcohol withdrawal both because of its efficacy and also because there is no risk of cross-addiction, and death, due to use of alcohol at the same time. Also, I don't see why baclofen cannot eventually be sold over the counter for that purpose. After all, is it not less dangerous than alcohol which is sold in lethal amounts over the counter every day?

I also tried Baclofen as I was starting a new job which involves public speaking and have always suffered from anxiety. I found that my anxiety disappeared with just 10mg per day.

I appreciate the need for trials of medications but should that not be in respect of the safety of the medication and not its specific use? Baclofen has been around for years and presumably went through rigorous tials. Now that it is out of patent it is unlikely that anyone is going to put it through trials so that is a bit of a dead end argument. As far as I can see there are no reports of deaths or adverse effects from its use and as Dr. Ameisen points out it can be prescribed off-licence by a GP.

Donald

By ddbharris@goog… (not verified) on 04 Jul 2009 #permalink

Maybe I'm out of line but has anyone considered the fact that a lot of people are making alot of money on people who suffer with addiction, not to exclude our own police departments, lawyers, judges etc. At least 3/4 of case heard are drug or alcohol related. Id there was a cure or drugs were legalized a lot of people would lose a lot of money. How about making drugs legal so people could actually get help and not be ashamed. No one ever sat down and said I want ot be an addict. When ever there is some medication that can help like naltrexone or suboxone the cost is insane. So do you really think anyone cares if these children, or parents have a chance in hell of getting cured? It's all about the mighty buck leets call it what it is Greed!!!!!

Maybe I'm out of line but has anyone considered the fact that a lot of people are making alot of money on people who suffer with addiction, not to exclude our own police departments, lawyers, judges etc. At least 3/4 of case heard are drug or alcohol related. If there was a cure or drugs were legalized a lot of people would lose a lot of money. How about making drugs legal so people could actually get help and not be ashamed. No one ever sat down and said I want to be an addict. When ever there is some medication that can help like naltrexone or suboxone the cost is insane. So do you really think anyone cares if these children, or parents have a chance in hell of getting cured? It's all about the mighty buck lets call it what it is Greed!!!!!

HI, Post no.7 Rob says you can get baclofen on the internet without a script could you please tell me on what site? I have searched and found that not to be the case.

Thanks, Joan

Hello, I started taking Baclofen about six weeks ago. I didnât go to my doctor to tell him I was drinking too much as I am too ashamed to admit the truth. I can stay off alcohol for weeks at a time but then binge drink. I bought Olivierâs book in April and cried when I read it. Joan, I buy my Baclofen from the following web site www.inhousepharmacy.co.uk and they are superb. I buy 100 10mg tablets for £16.46 and that includes postage. I normally get the tablets one week after ordering. They are efficient, polite and discrete. I have found these tablets a complete godsend but one word of warning, follow Olivierâs instruction to the letter until you find your level and then work backwards. I have taken too much of the dosage to the point that I was getting grumpy and quite horrible but then I am going through the menopause which is complicating things with mood swings! I am now reducing my dosage to a max of 60mg a day but I will say one thing, I have had some upsetting stuff to deal with lately and I have not drunk my face off in denial as I usually do. I am absolutely amazed at how these tablets work. I hadnât realised that until I read this guys book that I suffered from anxiety. As soon as I started taking the tablets that horrible underlying feeling went and God do I feel so much braver. I feel hope for the first time and for people with weight loss issues, my God does it help craving â I am losing weight by not drinking and not stuffing my face. Olivier is a genius.

If anyone needs discounted meds...go to needymeds.com. This site will tell you how to get your medications directly from the drug manufacturer at a very discounted fee.

Tez

It was so nice to read your email. I read it out loud to my wife and she is going to get her prescription upped to 60 mg per day. She also has mood swings, is probably premenopausal and is going through a lot of anxiety at the moment. She also eats a ton of chocolate when she is not having a binge so has put on a lot of weight. I agree with you about Dr. Ameisen. There has been some criticism about him on this web site for being rich, famous, etc. but we need someone like him who has the combination of personal experience of this addiction as well as the medical background and the intelligence to find a way out. I think in a few years, or less, the number of people who using Baclofen and finding relief will grow to a "critical mass" whereby it becomes the medicine of choice for alcohol treatment and you, and my wife, will not have to feel ashamed about having an illness which most doctors just want to ignore because they have neither the compassion or intelligence to treat.

Donald

By ddbharris@goog… (not verified) on 12 Jul 2009 #permalink

Tez, Thank You for your site info. I pray that this will help my son. Can any one tell me if this medication helps for herion addition? Joan

Joan

The recognized treatment for heroin addiction is Naltrexone which is used in the UK. The police here pick addicts up at the prison gates and take them to a hospital to get them started with the medication. I have had a number of clients who have been on it and they have told me that they have no desire to take heroine. It is a Gaba agonist like Baclofen. It can be implanted so there is no need to worry about the patient not taking it. I have been looking through various web sites for Baclofen and read Dr. Ameisen's book and could not see any reference to it being use for heroin addiction but I think it is unlikely that anyone has tried it so it might be worth a try as the basis for its success is in its effect on Gaba receptors.

Donald

Joan

The recognized treatment for heroin addiction is Naltrexone which is used in the UK. The police here pick addicts up at the prison gates and take them to a hospital to get them started with the medication. I have had a number of clients who have been on it and they have told me that they have no desire to take heroin. It is a Gaba agonist like Baclofen. It can be implanted so there is no need to worry about the patient not taking it. I have been looking through various web sites for Baclofen and read Dr. Ameisen's book and could not see any reference to it being use for heroin addiction but I think it is unlikely that anyone has tried it so it might be worth a try as the basis for its success is in its effect on Gaba receptors. You can get Naltrexone over the web although it is quite expensive.

Donald

was getting grumpy and quite horrible but then I am going through the menopause which is complicating things with mood swings! I am now reducing my dosage to a max of 60mg a day but I will say one thing, I have had some upsetting stuff to deal with lately and I have not drunk my face off in denial as I usually do. I am absolutely amazed at how these tablets work. I hadnât realised that until I read this guys book that I suffered from anxiety. As soon as I started taking the tablets that horrible underlying feeling went and God do I feel so much braver. I feel hope for the first time and for people with weight loss issues, my God does it help craving â I am losing weight by not drinking and not stuffing my face. Olivier is a genius.

Joan,

Actually if you look at the Wikipedia entry for Baclofen it says that Baclofen acts on the brains of addicts to suppress cravings brought on by addiction to "various substances such as alcohol, cocaine, and heroin"

Joan,

Actually if you look at the Wikipedia entry for Baclofen it says that Baclofen acts on the brains of addicts to suppress cravings brought on by addiction to "various substances such as alcohol, cocaine, and heroin"

I am now reducing my dosage to a max of 60mg a day but I will say one thing, I have had some upsetting stuff to deal with lately and I have not drunk my face off in denial as I usually do. I am absolutely amazed at how these tablets work. I hadnât realised that until I read this guys book that I suffered from anxiety.

Those little animals are probably carrying a lot of diseases... I'm surprised no one has thought of it before! Have you seen how ugly those creatures are?? We have a few of them around here, but when they live in caves and stuff who knows what they eat?

Those little animals are probably carrying a lot of diseases... I'm surprised no one has thought of it before! Have you seen how ugly those creatures are?? We have a few of them around here, but when they live in caves and stuff who knows what they eat?

Those little animals are probably carrying a lot of diseases... I'm surprised no one has thought of it before! Have you seen how ugly those creatures are?? We have a few of them around here, but when they live in caves and stuff who knows what they eat?

He says he can go out and have an occasional drink. After what I have seen alcohol do to me and my family, I would NEVER even take 1 sip.

PERGUNTAS SOBRE BACLOFEN:
-COMO COMEÃAR,QUANTAS MILGRAMAS?
-NO COMEÃO DESTE TRATAMENTO,SE A PESSOA BEBER,O QUE PODERÃ ACONTECER?
-EFEITO COLATERAL PELO USO CONTÃNUO DO BACLOFEN?
-COMO SE FAZ ESTA MANUTENÃÃO?
-QUANTAS MILIGRAMAS?
-DR.OLIVER AMEISEN MUITO OBRIGADA POR NOS TRANSMITIR ESTA EXPERIÃNCIA.

I think we are all addicts to an extent and preventing yourself from doing something you want or crave is no way to live your life. The key is to not abuse it and do it in moderation. If you're an alcoholic.. don't drink every single day and instead do it maybe once a week.

Also addictions to mind altering substances usually has a deeper problem. It's a way for people to escape reality. Now why would they want to escape is what they should be working on fixing.

Its difficult to deal with an addiction, people who are addicted most likely are more tempted to start again when they run into problems so its an ongoing issue.

Go to Mywayout forums to see how Baclofen is helping people get off booze. Truly amazing.

My issue is I think the world has two distinct types of users.

1. Those who are PHYSICALLY ADDICTED. Noted by the physical symptoms of the lack of using the drug of choice. These are physical symptoms, tremors, vomiting, etc.

2. Want...... this is no different than the kid wanting candy and not carrying about the outcome, if he gets grounded for eating it before dinner. They get in trouble by the law, etc...... It is an emotional override that has nothing to do with physical addiction.

This is our societies medical problem. No one seems to understand that the two are not the same and are from very different parts of the brain and are independent.

You can drink and get high every day and not be physically addicted to a substance This is not true addiction.

Our social problem is based on a different issue and he is attempting to understand, and solve the problem.

More research and understanding needs to be put into this aspect of behavior.

Otter, thank you for your post on January 29, 2011. I had been taking relatively low doses of Baclofen (50-75mg) for about a year with little lasting effect. Afer reviewing Mywayout threads you recommended, I went up to 175mg per day within a month and believe I have found indiference to alcohol. Not completely positive yet that I have achieved the "switch," but the MWO threads have been invaluable to me! I plan to post to MWO eventually.

Baclofen is amazing. After I started to take about 200 mg per day I completely wiped my addiction to heroin and other opiates(last injection about one month ago) and It takes just week. I don't believe, but it's comletely truth. I just don't want opiates. I don't know how long this effect will presists, but at moment - it's a miracle.

excited to have discovered this info hope my son will start on this amazing drug any people in south africa johannesburg on this med?

By milton brown (not verified) on 08 Dec 2011 #permalink

Hi Tez

Thanks for the info on the website to buy Baclofen...I have ordered it just now along with Dr Ameisens book...loooking forward to getting it done
xx