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

Who Answers?

Primary Care for Alcoholics

In treating alcohol abuse and alcoholism, “we haven’t yet reached the Prozac moment,” says Dr. Mark Willenbring, referring to the drugs that radically changed the treatment of depression. But Dr. Willenbring, an expert on treating alcohol addiction, predicts that the day is not far off when giving a pill and five minutes of advice to an alcohol abuser will be all that is needed to keep drinking under control.

Two such medications are already available, though they are not as effective as modern antidepressants have been for depression.

“We’re at the same place with alcohol abuse that the treatment of depression was at 40 years ago, when only psychiatrists treated it and most people with depression were never treated at all,” said Dr. Willenbring, the director the Division of Treatment and Recovery Research at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

Then came Prozac, followed by similar antidepressants that took the treatment of depression out of mental hospitals and psychiatric offices and put it in homes and in the offices of primary care doctors.

“Now almost all of depression is treated in primary care,” Dr. Willenbring said, “and two-thirds to three-fourths of depression is getting treated.”

But with alcohol dependence, he said, only one person in eight receives professional treatment.

“Those who get into treatment programs are the most severe alcoholics,” Dr. Willenbring said. “But the bulk of alcohol abusers have a more moderate form, with a better prognosis. Most could get well in primary care settings and not have to wait until they are at the end of their rope and forced to go into a rehabilitation program, which can be so stigmatizing.”

What is needed for controlling alcohol abuse early in the disease, he said, are drugs like Prozac that can be easily prescribed by primary care physicians to help people with moderate alcohol abuse. Several such drugs are now in the pipeline, Dr. Willenbring said.

The two already available — naltrexone and Topamax — are not yet the equivalent of Prozac for depression, but they can help many alcohol abusers learn to drink more moderately or abstain altogether. Naltrexone, now a low-cost generic, was originally developed to control drug addiction but was found to be more effective at reducing cravings for alcohol. Topamax, an antiseizure drug not yet available as a generic, has also been used to treat alcohol dependence, among other conditions.

Taken an hour before consuming alcohol, naltrexone blocks receptors in the brain that register “reward” and that reinforce a craving for alcohol. Within three to four months of starting treatment, naltrexone, when compared with a placebo, can reduce relapse to heavy drinking 20 to 40 percent, Dr. Willenbring said. Some European practitioners claim even greater effectiveness. By eliminating cravings for alcohol, the drug enables an abuser to drink more moderately or abstain entirely.

While naltrexone is not the final answer to alcohol abuse, it has been shown to be at least twice as effective as alcohol treatment programs and can avoid their stigmatizing consequences, which can include difficulty getting life insurance, jobs or security clearance.

Unfortunately, most primary care physicians know little or nothing about naltrexone, Dr. Willenbring said. He suggested that drinkers who need help controlling their intake ask their doctor for a prescription.

source: New York Times

More Treatment & Detox Articles

Effects of binge drinking linger

Heavy drinking adversely affects a person’s performance and perception hours after alcohol has left the body, researchers in Rhode Island said. Researchers at Brown University recruited 95 healthy adults ages 21 to 35 who had reported having a hangover at least one time within the month before the research began. The participants were randomly assigned….

Women Still Drinking During Pregnancy

Despite the Surgeon General’s warning that alcohol can affect unborn children, pregnant women haven’t changed their drinking habits much over the past two decades, the CDC said. The average annual percentage of pregnant women who drank remained relatively stable at about 12% for any alcohol use and 2% for binge drinking, C. H. Denny, Ph.D.,….

Drug Addiction

Drug addiction means an intense craving for the desire to have a drug at any time, regardless of place or time. You want to use it again and again. You will have unpleasant physical reactions if you stop it. It is not so that everyone who uses drugs becomes addicted to it. Addiction refers to….

Heavy drinkers may develop Alzheimer's earlier

Drinking or smoking heavily can speed up the development of Alzheimer’s disease, according to a new study. Scientists found that drinkers developed the disease almost five years earlier and heavy smokers just over two years earlier, after studying 938 people aged 60 or more who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Ranjan Duara, of the Mount….

Radiotherapy for cancer treatment

Radiotherapy is also commonly known as radiation therapy, which is also used for cancer treatment. As the name suggests, radiotherapy involves the use of radiations, the ionizing radiations, for treating cancer. These ionizing radiations “injure or destroy” the affected cancerous cells, hampering their “growth” and “division”. It is likely, the normal cells also being damaged,….