Yes, I have been following but I lost track of the time line in all the posts. I thought something may have changed.

Stay with us anyhow. We enjoy your company.

Exactly. I would like to hear from some of the people who have been doing this for years and about their different drinking levels. That would be very helpful!

I'm very much a newcomer, who hasn't even started using naltrexone yet. I realise that very few people who have managed to overcome their alcohol addiction using the Sinclair Method will know of our site at this stage, but there MUST be a large number of people who have long-term success stories. This has to be the case, because Dr. Sinclair cited over 70 clinical trials, and these trials were obviously completed years before our site even began. Also, naltrexone itself has been around for many years now, and was approved by the US FDA for alcoholism treatment in the 1990's. In fact, patients experiencing long-term success from the clinical trials would have to be either abstinent or controlled drinkers for quite a few years by now.
The stories of these people would be invaluable in advancing the acceptance of the Sinclair Method among doctors and patients. Most doctors would not have the time to research this, as they have to treat hundreds of different illnesses every day, and they would only be able to rely on what they may have heard about naltrexone from brief reviews or their own patients' reports. Since the recommended way of prescribing the medication is with abstinence, most patients would probably report a terrible failure rate, although hopefully some will also have reported a beneficial effect if they drank after taking it. There are indeed many reports of naltrexone stopping a lapse (taking a drink or two after total abstinence) from turning into a relapse (uncontrolled heavy/binge drinking). These reports seem to be dismissed sometimes, because total abstinence is usually seen as the ONLY POSSIBLE achievement by conventional treatment providers and researchers, but in fact they seem to prove naltrexone's effectiveness. The stopping of drinking after a few drinks is surely a huge improvement over the relapse into drunken, addictive, comatose behaviour that usually occurs when an abstinent alcoholic starts drinking again without taking naltrexone!

There is a member on the MWO forum who has been sober for around about a year, other than three lapses. She says if it wasn't for Naltrexone they would have become full-blown relapses, but as it was she was able to quickly get back to not drinking by taking Naltrexone when she lapsed.

If one could read Finnish (the majority of patients have been in Finland) then perhaps one would find comments on the internet about long-term treatment.

The Finnish private clinics (as opposed to government / public clinics using the Sinclair Method) have a site at www.contral.com

Hi all, I have been looking through the Finnish press (in English obviously) and searching for naltrexone/nalfremene/TSM, etc without success. Here's a thought, why don't we place a private ad in a national Finnish paper asking for responses from anyone who has completed TSM? From what I have read, alcohol addicition is widespread in Finland but is treated as a very private matter. However, maybe someone may respond with their experiences after 1,2,3 years. Just a thought, might be totally wacky.

Take care all. Shasha

PS: Pre-SM - 12 units/day - last night 6.5 units - am I finally on honeymoon??

I think it's a good idea Shasha and it just gave me another idea- which we can do straightaway and it is free.
We can post an ad on the Finnish Craigslist-

http://helsinki.craigslist.fi/

I guess the health forum would be a good place to start?

http://helsinki.craigslist.org/forums/?forumID=43

It seems fairly active- do you want to do it? If you haven't time I will but it would be nice if you did

Do you know of any Finnish newspapers if we don't get any response from Craigslist?

Hi Marby, how about something like this:-

Naltrexone/Nalfremene whilst drinking as treatment for alcohol addiction (The Sinclair Method). Have you any experience of this treatment protocol? thesinclairmethod.com is an international forum exploring the long-term effects of this treatment. Any input very gratefully received.

Does that sound a bit sinister???

Any suggestions from anyone welcome.
Take care all. Shasha

I find it odd that people seem to be concerned about the validity of The Sinclair Method simply because they can't find forum posts or diaries from those who have successfully completed the treatment. Dr. Esakapa's book and published articles by Dr. Sinclair himself list many clinical trials, journals, and other articles provided real data/proof. I'm finding that most of these journal articles, studies, etc are easily obtained with a quick google search. Most require you to pay for the article, but here is a free one:

http://content.karger.com/ProdukteDB/pr ... 104882.pdf

There is so much hard data and research supporting this method. Fact is, hard data and research like that referenced in Dr. Eskapa's book is MUCH more concrete proof of success than first hand accounts. This is why most legal systems place more weight on hard evidence than eye witness accounts.

It's hard to say why it is difficult to find first hand accounts of those who have gone through The Sinclair Method. Perhaps this is a function of how social online networks are only becoming popular in the last few years.

I agree completely - anecdotal, personal, subjective stories aren't nearly as reliable a predictor of results as is hard data. It's normal for us to want to communicate with those who have 'been there, done that,' but I believe everyone here is committed enough, and intelligent enough, to stick with the program based on the published studies, and Dr. Eskapa's generous assistance.

I suspect we're not getting the first hand accounts for several reasons. First, there's the language issue - it's a biggie. Then, people who participated in the Finnish studies had the ongoing support and guidance of qualified medical doctors. They weren't 'going it alone' as many of us are, so would be unaware of the desirability of their participation in this - or even that 'this' exists. And perhaps, once cured of alcoholism, it just might not be such a big issue in their lives any longer that they give it much thought - except to think, "Thank GOD I've got my life back!" Some might still be ashamed to admit they were addicts, but have rationalized their cure as something that might have happened, in any case.

But hey, we've got the data, the method, the medicine, this forum, one another, and Dr. Eskapa. Who really needs anything more?