Hi All, Can anyone let me know if they have experience of Dr Berkowitz in London and how the process works of getting a private prescription? I have emailed his clinic but the replies I get are bordering on useless (and almost rude!) in the amount of information they give. They just want to hussle me into a £250 appt without any indication on what happens next etc. I don't mind paying £250 as a one off fee if I can then get repeat prescriptions (as you would say for blood pressure tablets) but I don't really want to pay it and then pay that or another large fee every time I need to restock. I can't afford that. If anyone is using him I'd be so glad of information, or of any other UK doctor's process and costs.

I've been using River Pharmacy before and the reason I'm thinking of trying a UK prescription is that my drinking seems to have gone up recently and the pills seem to taste a lot less bitter then my last batch and I've been wondering about quality when buying online. Maybe it's something different I don't know, it's so hard to say as progress is up and down, but I was at a plateau which I wanted to improve by having more AF days and drinking less generally and seemed a little stuck, then for a while things got a little WORSE. I'm now taking 1.5 pills so 75mg and waiting an hour and a half so the protocol really must be OK. I had a dry January (oddly it seems possible to take an entire month off but to have 2 or 3 days off during the week is harder - why?!?) (Although the thought of another entire month off is daunting, maybe it's the finite nature of January only).

Anyway, any ideas or guidance very very much welcomed, thanks in advance.

Tish -

Perhaps give a call and ask for Dr. B's PA (Jacqui) or maybe even Dr. B himself? There certainly has to be someone there that knows the schedule of charges.

http://www.wimpoleaesthetics.co.uk/meet-the-team/

See Ruthy's 2013 post here:

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=3531&p=43655&hilit=wimpole&sid=cd1b6b4f095add93e3093b81438c7906#p43655

So it sounds like the fee has gone up 50 Pounds since Ruthy's post.

There's also Paul Turner from Alcohol Home Treatment, he offers services across the UK mainland. He also posts on Patient, here's a link to one of the more recent threads he's been in:

http://patient.info/forums/discuss/at-m ... 22#1967923

It's not unusual for TSM to be a bit of a roller coaster and people do often see their consumption rise after the initial drop. Stick with the Golden Rule and you should see things start to roll off from here. Things do go a bit different from one person to the other, the important thing is to answer the craving with Nal and The Golden Rule, then go ahead and take the drink. If you're having a hard time with AF days, that's because you aren't far enough along with extinction yet, so keep up with the Nal and the AF days will come later on down the road.

BTW, Tish - are you taking any other meds besides Nal?

Thanks so much for the reply Joesixpack!

Maybe I will try and give them a call, that might work but the link seems to explain it very well. £50 for 28 tabs is a lot though plus £250 upfront... I'm taking L-Theanine and some vitamin tablets, the L-Theanine as I heard it helps with GABA which is another issue with people who drink too much it seems. I think that is helping but it's hard to say as it's subtle, also I sometimes take Tryptophan and/or Melatonin if I'm having a phase of not sleeping very well, the Nal sometimes causes me to wake up at 2am and be a bit restless and it helps with that. Would any of those affect the Nal?

Thanks again

I've never heard of those affecting the Nal. Stuff like antidepressants might, benzodiazapines would walk on TSM for sure.

I wouldn't be surprised to hear that the price of the Nal has gone up too, along with the consult, crossing my fingers that it hasn't!

NB, for meds from River, the Nodict version of Nal may have a tougher coating than the Naltima version, some have found that breaking the pill in half then taking both halves gets past that.

I'm on the Naltima, it just seemed odd that the bitterness was ramped down, and I wondered if the actual active ingredients were also ramped down, it's hard to say. Good to know my other vits etc are not affecting the Nal, phew!!

I wonder if anyone else has noticed this on meds from River? Also a couple of others noticed a big change after going up to 75mg so that was interesting, I've been trying that for a couple of nights so we will see.... Have you tried that at all?

I think with the Dr Berkowitz team it was also that they seemed so brusque and keen to get me to part with £250 with very little info - that really put me off, it's a lot of money to put to something unclear but maybe they have to keep things vague, I don't know.

Paul Turner on the other hand was incredibly clear and informative, however what he offers is far more than I (or most people here) need, I think it is for people who are needing a detox and very hands-on help, and therefore very expensive, he was excellent and didn't try and hussle me at all.

I'm wondering if the person you talked to actually works with Dr. B, perhaps they just don't know of all the charges that would apply. I suppose you could ask for a callback from Dr. B himself...

I was also talking to Joanna about Wimpole at one point, she said the only reason Dr. B will prescribe Naltrexone is that he's a personal friend of Dr. Eskapa.

I've never ordered from overseas, as I was lucky enough to find a TSM doc not far from me. I just got up to 50mg after some extended side effects died down to a dull roar.

Hopefully someone else can pop in and answer your question about River. Just in case, did you check the expiration date? I'm assuming you're talking about the taste of the unbroken pill here...

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