Hi Everyone,

I've experienced amazing success with Nal right off the bat. Not sure how long the honeymoon with last but it sure looks like I'll be Naltrexone for a very long time. Does anyone know of any long term effects on being on Naltrexone?

-Chance

No, but I sure hope they are negligible! I plan to be taking it until I'm dead, or no longer able to hold a glass

But seriously folks...as it's benign now why wouldn't it stay benign?

As a daily drinker, here are my thoughts on this:

1) From what I've read, NAL is relatively harmless. It latches on to certain receptors for a while and does little else.
2) I've cut my drinking in half already using NAL; to turn the question around: what's worse drinking way too much or taking NAL and drinking much less?
3) Assuming over time I don't drink everyday, I expect not to be taking NAL every day, but perhaps only a few times each week or month at times I do drink.
4) I expect major medical breakthroughs to occur in the next decade or so due to the genome research, etc. It is quite possible a better drug or combination of drugs -- NAL plus -- will become available at some point.

Good question. I contemplated it too. My thoughts:

No one knows for sure because it's in no one's mind (other than TSM proponents) that anyone would be taking naltrexone for many years on a regular basis. Conventionally, the drug is supposed to be a band aid supporting you in transition. That said, on a surface of it it it certainly seems to be a very mild drug. That's not to say that it is impossible that down the road something crazy will be discovered (good or bad equally possible). It is 100% sure that long-term naltrexone administration in mice leads to a [probably permanent] increase in the number of opioid receptors and, as a result, hypersensitivity to opiates. It is reasonable to assume that the same happens in humans but to the best of my knowledge (and I searched) it has not yet been demonstrated reliably in humans.

If real, the hypersensitivity is potentially a very serious issue. It means, for example, that the amount needed for OD is reduced in hypersensitive individuals. Since morphine and its derivatives are ubiquitous in medical practice today, it is IMHO a very good idea to always get good attention of your anesthesiologist and let him know that you are long-term naltrexone user and might be hypersensitive to opiates. Note that this is an exact opposite to what is frequently discussed here - when user is current on Nal, he will be relatively unresponsive to opiates and would require higher opiate dosage to get desirable pain killing effect - which runs risk of getting too close to an OD.

Nutella, I assume there is a study indicating this? If so, do you have the name of the study or a link to the abstract?

Thanks.

I thought this might be of interest here. While it does not address the long term effects, it is a study of the long term use of NAL for treatment of alcohol abuse.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_h ... n29146922/

Merlot,

Here are few (the list is far from exhaustive):
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6289965
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6318895
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3020228
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7667382
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12653976
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17698975

Have fun