Call 888-647-0579 to speak with an alcohol or drug abuse counselor.

Who Answers?

Monthly Shot Helps Alcoholics From Drinking

A new monthly injection could help keep holiday drinkers on the wagon.

David Rosenbloom, a specialist in substance abuse at Boston University School of Public Health, said for people battling alcoholism, holidays pose a strong danger of relapse.

“For some it’s the stress of being lonely, for others it’s the stress of being with people,” he said.

The pressure can be too much for some teetotalers, particularly during Christmas and New Years when social pressure and opportunities to drink are particularly high.

Many recovering alcoholics take pills containing naltrexone, a substance that reduces the desire to drink by blocking the receptors in the brain responsible for the high that drinking brings.

“During the holiday season, pressures often drive alcoholics to stop taking the tablets,“ said Sandra Lapham at the Behavioral Health Research Center of the Southwest in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Now there is a new slow-release formulation of naltrexone, where the drug is injected into muscle once a month and researchers believe it could be a saving grace for recovering alcoholics who give into holiday pressures and stop taking their pills.

The Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment published a small study of 28 patients who received full-dose naltrexone shots, compared with another 28 given placebos. For heavy drinkers (five or more drinks a day for men, and four for women) the shots reduced the frequency of drinking days, the number of drinks and the percentage of days classed as heavy drinking sessions.

And researchers say the drug was just as effective during the holidays as it was for the rest of the year.

Rosenbloom said the injections could be hugely significant for public health, especially during the hectic holiday season when 40 percent of road deaths over Christmas and the New Year involve at least one driver impaired by alcohol. He said he would like to see courts offer naltrexone shots to repeat drunk-driving offenders.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the naltrexone injections in 2006. However, naltrexone injections must be given with care, because they can cause abscesses if the drug is deposited into fatty tissue, Lapham warned.

source: redOrbit

More Treatment & Detox Articles

Starving for alcohol, bingeing on booze

A potentially new form of an eating disorder has people cutting calories to enjoy alcohol without the weight gain. Summer has arrived. As students diet and exercise to get into swimsuit shape, an extension of an eating disorder called drunkorexia makes headlines. Drunkorexia, a non-medical term, was coined by the media. It refers to “people….

Alcohol consumption doubles since the 1960s

Britain is facing a “silent epidemic” of dementia as alcohol consumption has doubled since the 1960s, doctors have warned. The link between alcohol consumption and dementia is being ignored and unless urgent action is taken today’s binge drinkers will be tomorrow’s dementia patients, psychiatrists said. Public awareness campaigns and labels warning that dementia is linked….

Binge drinking a continuing problem among underage Oregonians

A year ago, a booze-fueled spring break trip was all the news when two Portland State University basketball players got into a drunken brawl in Mexico. That donnybrook drew lots of attention because athletes were involved. But it was otherwise unremarkable: Studies show that, while students don’t necessarily drink more on spring break, those who….

Drug rehab

The forces of drug addiction are very strong and therefore, getting rid of the drug addiction is not a simple task. People must realize that they alone cannot tackle their problem of drug addiction and therefore, they need help, help of a drug rehab center. It is the responsibility of the parents and the friends….

Moderate Drinking Raises Risk Of Hospitalization

New British research suggests that men who consumer just four pints of beer per week may increase their lifetime risk of being hospitalized. In the study of 5,772 Scottish men, researchers found that those who consumed just four pints of beer, eight shots of spirits or eight small glasses of wine per week were more….