I rarely drink anymore but I used to be a huge drunk, like wait until my last patient of the day was done. Then zip on out of my office and pick up beer on the way home as quick as possible so I could calculate that I wouldnt smell by the next day's patient at 9am.
But I put myself on baclofen which is a wonder drug for those who get their brain's reward system addicted like I did. It works on the gaba-b receptors, its as effective as benzos such as valium to prevent delirium tremens and withdrawal without the intoxicating effects of benzos.
I started a little mini movement a few years back on an alcohol board getting people sober with it. It was greatly effective in most cases when they used my protocol.
Funny thing was, many of them, started drinking again b/c they liked getting drunk, but with baclofen they can do that, rather than fall back into drinking 24/7. It allows them the ability to moderate much more effectively.
Every couple weeks I get a request for info for some Aussie on the skids from my wife's family who is big into their church. And almost always I can sort them out whereas, before baclofen there was just locking them up in rehab.
Baclofen has also been looked at to prevent testosterone decline while on cycle working in the hpta realm, if I recall, it wasnt too effective but I only looked at the research briefly.
My basic protocol for those who want to quit is:
10mg tid to start (tid = three times daily in divided chunks of time).
Initial drowsiness is the side effect in some/most. Subsides very quickly though.
Double that dose after 5 days,
20 mg tid
Double that dose again after 5 days or when you equilabrate to the dose, meaning the drowsiness goes away.
Continue upping the dose until your "magic point" which is when you feel zero desire to drink. It always happen, just have to get the dose higher. Ive had some reach that at 60mg total daily, some at 300mg. Most at 120mg daily.
Once that is reached, you fill your life with stuff that doesnt involve alcohol, be social outgoing and build networks and time to do things that dont involve alcohol. And voila, you are cured, or managed at least.
Then you can dial back the dose until you start getting that devil on your shoulder whispering in your ear that a beer sounds good and go back up 10mg on each of your thrice daily dose. And thats your maintenance dose.
Which 10mg above waking up the Irish devil that sits upon our shoulders lol
Of course your devil maybe whatever, mine is defnitely Irish
And if you do that, you will be able to drink normally and socially and put it down after halfway through, rather than planning how to get mass quantities of -OH molecules in your system surreptitiously after drinking your first drink. You will be able to put it down and allow the cognitive/reasoning portion of your brain to remain in control, rather than losing a battle to the hijacked reward system of your brain that at that point thinks that the alcohol is more important than water to your survival, which is always a losing battle. Kill that reward system with a gaba-b receptor agonist
.gif "IP Gear")
