If I take a Nal (50 mg) at say 11AM and have a drink in the afternoon and then later that evening go out and have some drinks at 10PM, do I have to have a Booster after so many hours and if so how much?
I did read "The Cure for Alcoholism" but I didn't see anything about this in the book.
I must say after reading it, I and so many others out there have so many questions. I think the book was for me very repetitive and really needed to address so much more on TSM.

I don't have a scientific based answer for this only my own experience.

If I was drinking for longer than 4-6 hours or drinking later the same day then I would take 25 or 50 mgs before the evening session.

Thank You UKblonde for the response. This is the problem where the book should have addressed that as we are alcoholics and all drink differently not always at one sitting!

There is dispute about booster nal. Some say it should never be necessary, that naltrexone's chief metabolite has a long half-life, that one 50mg dose protects everyone for a full 24 hours. On the other hand, the metabolites which linger have much less affinity for the relevant receptors than the actual naltrexone does.

Long story short, it can't hurt. Many marathon drinkers found that their cures didn't even properly begin until they began boosting.

I used a 25mg booster after 4 hours almost every time. I don't believe the book makes any reference to it. I probably picked up the ideal from some post I read. I have a friend who's a Dr and before I started I asked him several questions about naltrexone and TSM. He picked up the idea of how the process of TSM worked immediately. He was familiar with naltrexone and had used it in a er setting. But apparently they use it in a drip method as opposed to a pill. He questioned me on the half life of naltrexone and at what point does it loose its efficacy. So although the key is in the lock. At what point does the key start disintegrating and loose its full potential? To me and I'm no Dr., the boosters kind of make sense and I'm glad I did it. I preferred to error on the side of too much naltrexone then to little.

I'm just finishing my first week and 50mg feels plenty strong for me, and I don't know if body size weight matters or not, but I'm at 190 lbs (86kg) right now.

I can clearly feel it kicking in during the hour after taking the pill, and honestly it doesn't really seem to make a difference if I break it up or not. Either way it washes over pretty strong.

I've read several accounts on this topic and the majority agree that the half life of Naltrexone is 4 hours. So every 4 hours 50% of the drug is eliminated. So that means there are traces for more than 24 hours. Obviously this does not speak to the effectiveness in blocking the opiate receptors over this time period and this is the rub.

I have never taken a booster* but I am also a good responder it seems from my experience so far. Today for example, I learned I was to have lunch with an associate and immediately took a Nal at noon. Went to lunch at about 1:30 but drinking didn't evern come up. I did have a pint of good beer this evening, about 5:30, and Nal was in full effect. I got a very slight 'ahh' that only lated about 5 minutes and crashed before take off. Then I got tired, and a little queazy. I gave myself every opportunity to have another, but just did not feel like it at all.

*My experience only. I agree with others who say better to have too much than too little.

I get 4 hours too as a half life for Naltrexona, and 13 hours as a half life of 6-β-Naltrexol (whch if I read it correctly is what some of the Nal is changed to in your body)

So after 4 hours there definitely will be half naltrexone in your body, what I don't know is it that because a fair amount has changed into 6-β-Naltrexol which is also an opiate blocker and maybe the process that needs to happen.

I lent my book to my G.P so cant look up advice about topping up doses, but this is certainly a question for someone with pharmacology knowledge.

6beta-naltrexol has a longer half-life, but also less affinity for the opioid receptors, so some think it doesn't protect as well as the actual naltrexone. I suspect they're right, just based on field experience, but the details of the process haven't been studied well enough to give a final answer.

"Better too much than too little" is probably a reasonable way to decide how to err. It's not literally true -- I won't be taking a thousand milligrams just to make sure -- but erring on the side of caution is often good advice.

I got this off "The Paradoxical Sinclair Method For Treating Alcohol Dependence by Mark Dombeck, Ph.D.at www.centersite.net.

"Drugs can be either long acting or short acting. Short acting drugs have their effect quickly and then that effect goes away. The effect comes on all at once and can be rather intense sometimes, but then fades away rapidly. In contrast, a long acting drug comes on slowly, and has a mild effect that is, well, long-lasting. Sinclair calls for short acting forms of opioid antagonist drugs, because he doesn't want to have the effect of these drugs to last too long. Imagine the consequences of taking a long-acting drug that reduced the pleasure you found in living your life. Suddenly most aspects of your life would lose their luster and you might become depressed (or at least like your life less). A short acting pleasure reducing drug, in contrast, is just the ticket for what Sinclair has in mind, because he is proposing that this pleasure-reducing drug be paired with drinking. The effect needs to be just long enough to suck the pleasure out of the drink, and no longer. The rest of life should not be impacted. Using a short acting drug allows this isolation of the drug's effect to be accomplished."

Of course we still don't know what the short acting amount of hours are?
So I will add 25 mg later in the day if I am going to drink as many have said to be safe!