Confused.....

[christyacc]

I haven't been here for some time...sorry .

I was on Bac a bit ago and it was doing wonders! I would go the week without even barely a thought....then have a few on the weekend....which for me, was fine. Then I ran out! I finally got some ordered and well, the Bac doesn't seem to have the same effect on me. Now, maybe it's because I haven't been quite as diligent in taking it. I would remember some of the time...I wasn't on much of a schedule.

I wonder if I just try to start over with a more dedicated spirit...that it may work better.

Any thoughts?

Thank you to everyone!
Christy

[Lo0p]

Confused.....

I experimented with doses that would usually keep me sober after running out and getting some more. What I found is that it isn't so much just the dose amount but that despite it's published short half-life, the bac obviously builds up in your system and is more effective at the same dose after several days. At least this was the case for me.

[christyacc]

Confused.....

Lo0p;771049 wrote: I experimented with doses that would usually keep me sober after running out and getting some more. What I found is that it isn't so much just the dose amount but that despite it's published short half-life, the bac obviously builds up in your system and is more effective at the same dose after several days. At least this was the case for me.

I'm not sure I understand.....sorry.

[Lo0p]

Confused.....

I 'd say find your dose, and stick with it. That's what worked for me, and it didn't work when I took it sometimes and didn't other times.

[beatle]

Confused.....

It seems Zen is dabbling in religions of late But all Zenists are of all religions, aren't they?:thumbs:

As for bac and half lives and all that:

I tend to agree that it has to do with building up in the system. Whenever I wake up in the middle of the night, I pop a bac (10mg). I figure it's best to keep it in the system.

But having a half life of 4 hours does NOT mean it is out of the system in 4 hours.

I believe it means exactly what it says. It's half there. So, in my extremely simplistic way of looking at things, that means it's still doing its job after 4 hours. But maybe not after 8...?

[Lo0p]

Confused.....

Alright, I'll graph it...brb

[Lo0p]

Confused.....

An exponential decay process can be described by any of the following three equivalent formulae:



where

* N0 is the initial quantity of the thing that will decay (this quantity may be measured in grams, moles, number of atoms, etc.),
* Nt is the quantity that still remains and has not yet decayed after a time t,
* t1 / 2 is the half-life of the decaying quantity

[Lo0p]

Confused.....

I followed this out to 156 hours (6 1/2 days) and if this is indeed how our bodies metabolize baclofen then it does not progressively accumulate in our bodies.

[cowgal]

Confused.....

Such an expert loop!!!

I admire your wisdom, patience w/ all us ditz's and the data you come up with,:goodjob::thanks: I agree w/ everything said, stick w/ it, do not give up!!! It works!!!!!!

Best of luck!!!!

MA:l:h

[Lo0p]

Confused.....

cowgal;771119 wrote: I admire your wisdom, patience w/ all us ditz's and the data you come up with

I wouldn't call it wisdom cowgal, I'm 28 years old. I'd call it more of an inherent 'geekiness', but I thank you nonetheless! There is at least one error in this graph that I can think of right now.

I do this kind of stuff to try to elucidate for myself and for other people what is actually going on. I usually just end up confusing people and detracting from the original point though. So, I'll reiterate:

Christy, give it a shot the way that Dr. A did it. Then after that is working, experiment with lowering your dose and using it on a prn basis. You'll then have a good baseline to compare how effective it is.

I'm sure you've already done this because you've been using it for months, but it sounds like you're confused and this would be a good place to start over.

[billyb]

Confused.....

At the risk of derailing this thread even further, please keep in mind that half-life and duration of effect are not the same thing. I don't know how baclofen is metabolized, but metabolism of drugs in general is often quite complex, and so just because there might be only 1/2 as much baclofen in your system after about 4 hours (as an approximation - it can vary quite a bit depending on a number of factors) doesn't mean that you are getting 1/2 the effect. Drugs will often metabolize into several other chemicals, all of which then have their own varying half-lives, so you might get all sorts of levels of drugs in your system going up and down. While baclofen might be relatively simple compared to some other drugs, metabolism is a strange creature...

All of which is to say that your own subjective experience of craving is probably your best guide, since we don't have extensive clinical studies of how baclofen effects craving. And as Loop said, Dr. A. has a great method for dosing to use as a template, which you can then tweak based on your own experience.

So, to christyacc, if it were me (not medical advice, but this is what I would do in your situation), I would just go at it like you were starting from scratch again. Start with 30mg (10mg x3, or, if you are sensitive to the side effects, you can start with 15mg a day - 5mg x3). Then, every 3-7 days (depending on how well you tolerate side-effects) add an extra 10mg to your daily dose (5mg if you are sensitive). Keep going until you get that indifference to alcohol.

The key is persistence - keep at it even if you don't see the effects for a while. It will come eventually.

[If you get to the maximum safe dose (which is 300mg for someone of Ameisen's weight, which I believe was around 165 lbs if I remember correctly), and you still don't see effects, then maybe you can start to be discouraged. However, that seems extremely unlikely: it seems that everyone stops increasing doses either because of side effects or because it works - I haven't heard of anyone stopping because they reached the maximum safe dose and it still didn't work.]

[individualnz]

Confused.....

Assuming this is a person with normal renal and liver functions then it does not progressively build up ???? Awesome job with the graphs tho, really good to see it in a visual format.

[Cinders]

Confused.....

Darn sine waves.

[cowgal]

Confused.....

For what it matters?!?

I personally got all the was to 200mg, whch I thought may had been too high for my weight, only arond 120-124 on a heavy day....... Was pretty somnolent, but otther than that no bad side effects........ That said, got a different batch from another pharmacy, and, man it is kicking my ASS!!! Yesterday was my first night on this, may just be the 2 hrs sleep I had, or my mood!?!? Just my little two cents worth!!

MA

[PhoenixRising]

Confused.....

Lo0p - Wow, you are amazing. Nice to see it graphed!

Cowgal - encouraging to see you got as high as 200 with no effects, as I am currently at 140 and have not yet hit my switch.

Beatle - I, too, take 10mg in the middle of the night. I also take one around 4:00am as my first dose of the day so as not to go too long between doses. Also, taking 3 pills at a time has me nodding off at my desk!!

Anyone else get a buzz off of bac?

-P.