Thanks for the information about ordering Baclofen on-line. I am going to see if we can get this on prescription because, a) it is free here in Scotland and b) there is a big drink problem here and I want to force the issue even if it means reporting the doctor to her professional body. I believe that this is a cure and people's lives are being destroyed while doctors do nothing.

Daffyd,

This is altruism at its finest, and I agree 100%. For a flip side, see these recent posts.

-wort

Oh, and Daffyd,

I took Eskapa's book on TSM to my GP, and this really helped. I also took a printout of the COMBINE study report (if you get an annoying advertisement, wait until it goes away).

BTW, everyone here will recommend that you purchase Eskapa's book. It is a valuable resource when doing TSM.

-wort

Wort,

Thanks for the support. It is good to hear from people who are positive about the future for alcoholism treatment. I have decided to embark on a "one-man" cruscade to see what I can do about promoting Baclofen. I owe it to my wife at the least and it costs nothing to be pro-active. Maybe eventually someone will listen and in the meantime it might help someone who has endured what my wife and our family have.

Here is an excerpt from the Wikipedia entry on Olivier Ameisen:

Ameisen's treatment model has been hailed by Nobel laureate for Medicine Jean Dausset: "Ameisen has discovered the cure for addiction". His book has received the official endorsement of the Journal Alcohol and Alcoholism, that represents the National Council on Alcoholism and by its chief-editor, Pr. Jonathan Chick who has taken the unusual step to support Ameisen's findings in the medias (Daily Mail, The Big Issue) Prominent figures in Medicine, exasperated at the fact that addiction specialists have not fulfilled their obligation to conduct randomized trials of the only therapeutic model that could affect the deadliness of this devastating disease have publicly written: Jerome B. Posner, Chair of Neuro-oncology, George Cotzias director of the laboratory, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center wrote in January 2009:
"One wonders if high-dose baclofen will apparently become the treatment of choice without ever undergoing a controlled trial, simply because more and more alcoholics will be treated and the effectiveness will spread by word of mouth. If it works as well as you indicate that it does, it shouldn't need controlled trials. Even if a controlled trial were to show no overall benefit, it is clear that at least some (maybe all?) patient's do respond."
Arguably, Dr. Posner's suspicion has turned out to be correct. An online community has evolved wherein alcoholics order the medication online and self administer the drug with support from one another and Dr. Ameisen's book. Websites like mywayout.org and thesinclairmethod.net are replete with success stories of this variety. In the UK Dr Jonathan Chick, editor-in-chief of the medical journal Alcohol and Alcoholism publicly supports Ameisen's discovery.[6]> Ameisen has been awarded the French Legion of Honor by President Jacques Chirac, out of the President's personal reserve of Crosses in 1998.

Well, before I got on here tonight, I bit the bullet earlier in the day and ordered BAC from River Pharmacy. Dr. A recommends 1-3 mgs per day per kilo of body weight. Someone help me translate to metric - what does that mean if I weigh about 135 lbs.? I plan to start really slowly, per everything I've read: 15 mgs daily for 3 days then slowly add in 5 mgs as I see how it affects me...Hoping I will feel that "echk" feeling or forget about it altogether. Not sure what I expect, but certainly hoping this will work for me.

I'm nervous going it on my own, excited I have taken action and look forward to seeing what happens! Will start a new progress thread or just tag onto one of these BAC lines. I will definitely need and want to get feedback/support from the others here on it :-))

Hi Houlx

135 lbs. is 61.2349 kilos so you need to go up to about 183 mg per day and keep it there for about 10 days according to Ameisen. I would like to know if that works. His maintenance dose for body weight of of about 86 kilos was eventually 120 mg per day. I think the idea of going up to the very high level may be that if one is drinking heavily the stomach lining does not absorb nutrients as well so you need to take megadoses of anything to get a sufficient amount into your blood stream. There is a very interesting book written by Joan Larson called 7 weeks to Sobriety in which she advocates megadoses of vitamins and minerals to cure alcoholism. My wife tried this and it was quite successful. In the book there is a good analysis of the mechanism of alcoholism and it explains what happens to your stomach. Once you stop drinking then you need less medication as it is more easily absorbed. That is my theory!

I also have a prescription myself for Baclofen even though I gave up drinking years ago after getting to a point where I could not remember when I had last had a dry day. Since I stopped drinking I have been a bag of nerves. I started taking 20 mg a day and it made me quite sleepy and relaxed, in a pleasant way. It does affect your reflexes a bit and your thoughts slow down. Nothing bothers you. All in all a very nice feeling. After a while this goes away so you can up the dose. Try starting taking it on a Friday night and you will have a nice snooze.

My wife is on 60mg per day and takes 30 mg per day in the morning and 30 per night. It is not enough but it is better than not taking it and we are trying to get more so she can achieve total sobriety. The first time she took some she could not get off the sofa but felt incredibly relaxed. It takes a while but the sedative effect goes away and you feel ok without any anxiety. I have a nervous twitch in my leg so that is why I got a prescription. I also had a nagging cough and I can get quite agitated, making me talk a lot a bit manic. All that goes away on Baclofen and I feel "normal".

Hope that helps.

Best of luck.

Hi houtx,

Good for you - I think this is the right decision given the amount of time and effort you have devoted to TSM. Do you plan to continue TSM too?

Increasing slowly is very smart. I'll post more later, but I just had a few bad days. I wasn't feeling any side effects other than serenity, so I went from zero to 120mg in about two weeks. When the badness hit, it was real unpleasant. Two days of nausia, confusion - just generally bad. It took two days to get anywhere close to normal.

I'm pulling for you...

-wort

Thx, MR wort!
LOL and yes, I am thinking I will continues TSM "just in case". By the time my supply of NAL runs out, I should have a pretty good run w/ BAC and will go to my DR an talk to him about it. I want to talk to him about my records and getting those ducks in a row too. The pros about going thru insurance is it is a heck of a lot cheaper than buying online.

Anyway - sorry you are having a bad time w/ it. Why? Did you increase too quickly or drinking or what. Curious...hope it's better!