Hello Dr Eskapa. I dont know if you will ever read this post - but I just felt I had to write it.

I started taking naltrexone on March 19th 2010. I also read your book. I had the initial honeymoon period for about 5 weeks. Since then it has been like the proverbial rollercoaster - some brilliant nights and some not so good. I dont mind this as I was warned about it and prepared for it. However after say 8 weeks I began to feel a little nauseous, irritable and sleepy after taking my naltrexone. This usually wore off after an hour or 2. However I have found that over the past 3 months these side effects have got much more severe. 8 times out of 10 I have the following side effects - severe nausea (to the point where I am physically wretching to vomit), chronic exhaustion (where I could sleep for 2-3 hours after taking a tab) and really severe irritability - (where my skin is physically crawling and I feel so viciously angry I end up arguing with my family). Last night was my worse night on naltrexone when all these symptoms came together and ruined a family occasion. I am not a medical person - but I feel I must be allergic to naltrexone. At this stage I feel I need to stop taking it as it is interfering with the quality of my life (and my families) - in a way that alcohol did in the past. It is an awful shame as I was drinking 40-50 (maybe more) units of alcohol per week. At this stage I am down to about 20 (sometimes less). I can see that naltrexone is working for me for sure. However I cannot continue to take it if it causes such horrible side effects. Can you advise me do many patients suffer these side effects? Is there any other method of taking it to reduce these side effects? Have you ever met people who had to quit taking it due to side effects? Any advice would be appreciated.

Perhaps Eskapa may chime in, but consider taking .25mg instead of the full .50.

That has been suggested earlier too- thank you so much for your help.

I started naltroxene in September; I started with .25 mg. after about 10 days I became very depressed, had severe anxiety and just didn't feel like myself - I cut the .25 mg. in half and that didn't work at all, but I was scared to go back to the .25 mg. because of the severe anxiety and depression. My units dropped considerably and quickly - I went from drinking about 42 units a week to 15 units. It was really working for me, but I had to stop taking the naltroxene now I'm worse now than I was before. I'm thinking about giving it one more try, but I don't see how I will ever get to .50 mg without severe anxiety. I have a history of depression and anxiety disorder so maybe this will not work for me. I also suffered from extreme stomach aches for the first few days when I started, but that passed.

hey letitride,
i am so sorry to hear you are having such a bad reaction. i am wondering if you stopped having the anxiety when you reduced your nal intake. if so, did your al consumption go immediately back up? the reason i ask is that in the past when i stopped drinking i found that both anxiety and depression increased for me. so, i am wondering if it could be at least in part due to your big reduction in al, not just from the nal? you might read around the board here, i think there are many threads about anxiety and there may be a suggestion for something natural that could help reduce your symptoms. also it seems that those who experience bad side effects do best when they give their bodies time to adjust to small amounts first, so could you try again with 12.5 mg for a week or two and see how that goes? if it goes ok, try to increase. most people do find that the side effects subside after a few weeks.
having said all of that, be sure to asses things for yourself, and don't push it if it really doesn't feel right for you. i know from experience that anxiety and depression can be unbearable, so please, do take care.
all the best,
path