I'm a newbie (I posted my introduction in the newbie section). Before I found this method, I was researching Camprel and the read the many postive reviews on drugs.com. I decided to try this method first but after thinking on it, googling it and finding a study, I'm convinced that adding the campral might help this along faster and for those that are slower to react or don't do well, the combo might be the ticket.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12511176

Thoughts? (I realize that this might be a dead horse of a topic but my search results couldn't find it.)

All the years of all of the drinking and suddenly you have to get it all right TODAY!

Slow down. You already ordered the NAL. Order the book. Start. See how it goes. Plenty of time to change up in a few months. My money is on NAL.

I can tell you're excited and eager.

It's okay to slow down. Unless you're in danger of perishing from your alcohol consumption, in which case you should probably be in inpatient detox, you've got time for the cure to work. The Sinclair method doesn't need to be helped along or sped up. A true cure is better than just abstinence, because once you're cured you genuinely won't want to drink.

If you have a dragon to slay, would you rather go to it with one weapon or two? Just saying...

My personality type is get it done, get it done today, and make it perfect. I'm very driven that way. I have to know how things work, why things, work and why some things can't work. That said, just because I'm new doesn't make this any less valid of a discussion nor does it take away my desire to discuss it. Add to the fact that though many here have had success with TSM alone, many have not. I've been reading all day; the successes and the failures...

So again I pose, Campral (or Baclofen) plus Naltrexone. Why or why not?

Thank you for sticking around after you were cured Melissa because you have a lot of knowledge that people need. I think that people also need to know that there is an educated individual that has "been there and done that' lending their support to newbies.

I decided to try this method first over the Campral because of the way that it works to reverse behaviors. At the same time, binging, even though in this case may be the means to the end, is still unhealthy. So I take my Nal and drink and on the days that I feel like I should have a drink but what do I do on the days when I know I shouldn't have a drink at all but I'm craving it so badly? From what I've read, TSM doesn't work the same for cravings on days that you don't drink.

Like I mentioned previously, if both are effective together, why not use them together? Why not start off with a full arsenal just in case? What will it hurt?

They work by different means. Which method is most effective for you will depend on the specifics of your addiction.

As to how it could hurt, think of it this way -- if a craving is squelched by an outside force, that's a lost opportunity to retrain your brain not to crave.

Baclofen is taken daily at a high dose, until the point of indifference (to alcohol, of course) is reached. It's not something you grab on "those days." Because the dose is high, much higher than for its on-label usage, it's ramped up gradually and must also be ramped down gradually should you need to go off it. It's not an at-need drug.

I'm less familiar with Campral. I suppose it might work as an at-need drug. Looks like the dosage is frequent and not as high, so perhaps you could hop on and off it. That's assuming it even works for you, of course, but you wouldn't know that until you tried it.

What are you currently doing on days when you absolutely mustn't drink?

Campral is supposed to only work with abstenance, so don't see how it would work with TSM.

I have tried Campral several times on it's own, never noticed a difference and I felt it was mostly placebo effect.

Well, naltrexone is also pitched as "with abstinence," and we know that's not true.

Studies using Campral for craving are unconvincing, and its three times a day. Doesn't seem to have many fans.

This whole "to reduce cravings" thing should be read as if accompanied by a sly wink, IMO.

Campral is a GABA agonist, like baclofen. The idea is to flood the receptors, making them all nice and happy -- sort of the opposite approach to naltrexone, which is an opioid antagonist.

If you're addicted via GABA and the GABA receptors are saturated, then in theory you wouldn't crave. The receptors would already have the thing you're addicted to having. It makes sense, and baclofen has certainly helped some people. Unfortunately, GABA-addicted people are a minority.

Or perhaps that's not unfortunate, since opioid-addicted people can be helped with naltrexone or nalmefene and those are safer drugs. The blockers also allow for the conditioning to be broken and the addiction to be undone. On balance, we opioid-addicted people are probably the more fortunate group.

Anyway, point is, they do different things by different methods. An opioid-addicted alcoholic won't be helped by something which saturates GABA receptors because GABA receptors were never the problem. A GABA-addicted alcoholic won't be deconditioned via the Sinclair method because the opioid response wasn't the reward which created the initial conditioning.