ALCOHOL ABUSE DRUG
Tonight, there is new hope for those suffering from alcohol addiction. An experimental once-a-month injectable drug is helping patients get their lives back on track.
19 million Americans suffer with alcohol addiction, not to mention the family members and friends who’s lives are affected as well. Now this new medicine has been shown to be highly effective at controlling the cravings.
There is new hope for those suffering from alcohol addiction. They can look forward to being treated with an experimental once-a-month injectable drug that is helping patients get their lives back on track.
19 million Americans suffer with alcohol addiction, not to mention the family members and friends who’s lives are affected as well. Now this new medicine has been shown to be highly effective at controlling the cravings.
“I’ve been a heavy drinker for about 25 years since about the age of 15 I grew up in a small town in Wisconsin, there really wasn’t much thought given to it, you just started drinking.” It’s been a long and dark road for John Bauhs, who says alcohol caused his life to unravel to the point that his family members distanced themselves from him. He tried everything, including psychoanalysis. “I even tried going cold turkey and going to AA and none of those things seemed to work,” says John.
But now there is new hope for patients like John, in New York, New Jersey and elsewhere. Research done at the University of Pennsylvania and at 23 other centers nationwide shows this experimental injection of the drug naltrexone, given just once a month, is highly effective at staving off the alcohol cravings.
The drug works by binding to opiate receptors in the brain. It’s believed that this blockade gradually extinguishes the craving for alcohol and leads to a greater ability to resist the urge to drink excessively. In fact, a reduction in heavy drinking was seen in the first month of treatment, and reduced the mean number of heavy drinking days from 19 to just three per month.
Naltrexone is already available in pill form, taken once daily. This is what John is using now, and he says it’s a miracle drug. “It allows you to focus not on not drinking because you don’t drink while you’re on it, but allows you to focus on getting better in other ways meaning working with counselors,” John states.
The injectable form did the same, and was better received by patients. Dr. Helen Pettinati, the study researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, says, “What was really surprising is that taking an injection making a decision to have a medication one out of thirty days was so much easier than taking pills every day.”
“People still need counseling, people need to straighten out their lives, but this medication does is it really works on the biology on urges and cravings for alcohol it really reduces the urge to drink. This is going to be a real hope for families and people who suffer from alcoholism,” says Dr. Pettinati.
The drug is still an experimental medication, but the company that produces it is filing with the FDA for approval rights.
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