Alcohol Dependence

Alcoholism claims thousands of lives every year in the United States through other maladies, and this does not even include the thousands of lives lost each and every year through DWI (driving while intoxicated) accidents and work place incidents. It also means fewer ruined lives, better work records, less lost productivity, savings billions in health care costs, fewer hospitalizations and fewer broken marriages.

Is there a cure for alcoholism? Certainly, there's abstinence from "hitting the bottle." But how do you get to abstinence? Some people are benefiting from the well-tried combination of counseling and a relatively new prescription drug "Vivitrol," now available in the American market.

Vivitrol is the short, market name for "Naltrexone" in an extended-release injectable suspension. That can be shortened itself to "a shot in the butt," every month, of Vivitrol with the sound advice of your doctor and the follow up care of your therapists and support group.

With Vivitrol patients don't have to remember to take a pill. Especially when first starting treatment, patients lack clarity that they achieve later on in the process. It's during these first few days when it can be hard for them to think of taking a daily pill. They might miss it the first day, miss it the second day....and then be paying the consequences on the third day.

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) states that medication is best used in combination with long term therapeutic help...like counseling. Counseling itself must be handled by "combining medicine and counseling" in approved settings. So in both matters, there must be a long range commitment to both taking your medication and also, at the same time, attending what the NIAAA calls "psychosocial support." This psychosocial support" includes such well proven groups as the Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) program as well as the many state financed, or state supervised, alcoholic recovery programs.

What makes doctors optimistic about Vivitrol is this: it offers "people struggling with alcohol dependence a new alternative...and shown to be both effective and well tolerated" by the people using the medication.

Most complications from Vivitrol include nausea, headaches, fatigue, and vomiting, and these (usually) go away after a few days. Because these usually go away after a few days, the complications might be discounted by your doctor anyway.

As always, ask the doctor first about whether Vivitrol is good for your alcoholism. At best, it might be a cure. But only he or she can monitor its benefits and discern its problems.