Covid-19 lockdowns have created big panic among people that must have some form of alcohol in their body on a daily basis. Lack of their dosage can result in withdrawal and even death in extreme cases. Big lines in front of licensed liquor shops in all over India were a sight of pity. All men and not worried about public health warnings about distancing to avoid infection, standing close by for their turn to buy liquor. They were worried about infection but desperation to get the bottle was bigger priority over Covid-19 or endangerment of life.
But people should know that medications are available to treat alcohol use disorder, the term for the condition that’s been labeled by society as alcoholism.
These medications have been available for a long time, fewer than 10% of the people who could benefit from them use them, according to experts.
“You don’t have commercials talking about [these drugs],” says Stephen Holt, MD, director of an American institute named the Addiction Recovery Clinic at Yale-New Haven Hospital , Connecticut. ” doctors tend to shy away from these meds because they weren’t trained to use them in med school.”
Medications for alcohol use disorder are effective in helping people quit alcohol consumption or cut its quantity down.
“Medications are the beginning of how you make the psychological change that needs to occur,” says Gerard Schmidt, an addiction counselor and president of the Association for Addiction Professionals.
Psychological change is most important for these medications to work meaning one’s own desire to stop or reduce alcohol intake.
Medication helps them achieve that goal.
Three drugs have approval for alcohol use disorder, and each works differently.
DISULFIRAM
In 1951, this was the first drug introduced for alcohol use disorder. Disulfiram (Antabuse) changes the way your body breaks down alcohol. If you drink while taking it, you get sick. And because you do, you’re probably not going to drink as much.
Disulfiram isn’t for everyone, though. Many people have a hard time sticking to it.
“If you start to associate a drug with nausea, vomiting, headaches, sweating, and basically a really bad hangover, you’ll wake up one morning and decide, ‘I’m not sure I’m going to take my Antabuse today,'” Holt says. “It gets hard to compel somebody to take a drug that’s only associated with unpleasantness.” But it can work well for people who firmly decide to stop drinking.
NALTREXONE
When you drink alcohol while taking naltrexone, you can feel drunk, but you won’t feel the pleasure that usually comes with it. “You’re trying to make that relationship with alcohol have no rewards,” Holt says.
The medication can help ward off cravings, too, he says. When you have alcohol use disorder, just thinking about alcohol triggers a pleasurable response in the brain. “Naltrexone can help uncouple alcohol and pleasure.”
Research shows that naltrexone works best for people who have already stopped drinking for at least 4 days when they begin treatment. You take it daily as a pill or get a monthly injection at your health care professional’s office.
ACAMPROSATE
Acamprosate (Campral) eases withdrawal symptoms — such as insomnia, anxiety, restlessness, and feeling blue — that can last for months after you stop drinking.
The balance of these systems in the brain of a person who has been drinking heavily for a long time gets thrown off, Holt says. “Acamprosate is designed to level out those abnormalities and provide some stability.”
OTHER MEDICATIONS
Two other drugs, gabapentin and topiramate, also interact with GABA and glutamate systems. The FDA approved them to treat seizures, but health care professionals sometimes prescribe them “off-label” for alcohol use disorder.
LONG-TERM RESULTS
Most research shows the effects of taking medications for 6-12 months. The benefit of longer-term use is less clear.
Counseling or psychotherapy might help some people.
“My hope,” Schmidt says, “is that after a while the behavioral changes are such that the medication isn’t going to be necessary.”
(Above views are strictly the opinion of the writer and do not represent views of poststarnews.in)
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