If I may make a suggestion, I believe that it would probably be most productive for you (and for them) to contact the French forum that has become very well structured and organized. Using my book and a few elements, they claim to now be able to convince nine out of ten general practitioners to prescribe a patient high-dose baclofen for alcohol dependence. A year ago, it was extremely difficult (as still is in the US) to convince only one of these doctors. The name of the forum is: ?alcool et baclofene?: Alcool et baclofene and the forum is Baclofene The person you should contact is ?Anuck? because he is fluent in English. His email address is: jpr1@romandie.com Also, in France, an association ?Aubes? Baclofene has been created. Its members are patients who are already cured or in the process, as well as general practitioners and psychiatrists who I have personally trained to prescribe baclofen for alcoholism and who obtain around 90% cure rate. On the website ?alcool et baclofene?, one physician responds to all patients? questions. As you know, I wrote my book to have patients, their loved ones and compassionate physicians realize that alcoholism, addiction and related behaviors are a biological disease, as are high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol levels, asthma etc? and that patients need an adequate pharmacological treatment, that is baclofen, the only medication that in animals and in humans, has been shown to completely suppress craving/addiction. I wrote this book with the goal of having patients organize and join forces to help conquer this deadly and devastating disease, after I realized that the alcoholism/addiction experts were unwilling to conduct randomized trials of high-dose baclofen. And this is exactly what is happening. As I wrote in a paper in a medical journal and quoted in my book: ?I have recently proposed that alcohol/substance dependence could result from an adaptative phenomenon in response to an underlying GHB-deficiency related dysphoric syndrome (anxiety, insomnia, depression) in which alcohol and related substances would be sought to ?substitute? for insufficient GHB effect (ref). At the later stage of dependence, exogenous GHB could, in addition to ?substituting? for the alcohol (as proposed by the authors) also represent true substitutive treatment for GHB-deficiency.? (Ameisen O. Are the effects of gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) treatment partly physiological in alcohol dependence? Am J Drug Alcohol Abuse. 2008;34(2):235-6; author reply 237-8.)
If one compares the resistance of many experts in the addiction field in academia, one should think of what happened in 1982, when Drs Barry Marshall and Robin Warren (Nobel prize in Medicine 2005) proved that a bacteria - helicobacter pylori ? was at the origin of gastro-intestinal ulcers. When I was a medical students, the dogma had it that like for alcoholism and addiction today, ulcers were a ?complex, multifactorial problem?. At its origins, psychosomatic/psychiatric disorders, eating habits, stress, heredity etc? The treatment required regular visits to a gastro-enterologist, weekly sessions of psychotherapy and expensive inefficient medications.
The discovery, to paraphrase Dr. Barry Marshall was harshly fought by three lobbies: the gastro-enterologists who were making a living of performing endoscopies, psychiatrists and psychologists who were making a fortune from this life-long disease and the pharmaceutical industry.
Here are excerpts of an interview of Barry Marshall in 1998:
Barry Marshall Interview -- Academy of Achievement
?It was a campaign, everyone was against me. But I knew I was right, because I actually had done a couple of years' work at that point. I had a few backers. And when I was criticized by gastroenterologists, I knew that they were mostly making their living doing endoscopies on ulcer patients. So I'm going to show you guys. A few years from now you'll be saying, "Hey! Where did all those endoscopies go to?" And it will be because I was treating ulcers with antibiotics.
Do you think there was an economic motive that made some people unwilling to consider this?
Barry Marshall: That's true. The livelihood of gastroenterologists and many of the drug companies depended on these drugs that were worth billions of dollars, treating millions of people with ulcers. And the thing about ulcers is they come back every second year, that's why they're always thought to be constitutional, or emotional, or caused by stress, because the patient's lifestyle would stay the same and maybe each winter he would get his ulcer back. Gastroenterologists, it seemed to me, only need a few hundred patients. They would do the same endoscopy on the patient each year. He would come back with ulcer symptoms, they'd put the scope down and say, "Yes, you've got an ulcer again. Try this other ulcer medication." There was always a new one to try on the patients in the '80s. And I would say, "Hang on a minute. There's something wrong here. When you see an ulcer, you give the patient Tagamet. And if the patient doesn't have an ulcer, you give the patient Tagamet. Why are we doing this endoscopy when they all get Tagamet?" That was the big drug in those days. I was a little skeptical of that diagnosis of being neurotic or a little stressful. If we didn't find anything there, particularly in women, we would say, "You're under a lot of stress, my dear. You haven't really got anything wrong with yourself. We'll give you an antidepressant." I used to see this happening so often in women whose biopsies were very, very inflamed with these bacteria.
What did you do at that point?
Barry Marshall: Well, you know, there is a tradition in medicine of medical researchers testing out their own new discovery on themselves. So, I'd heard about this. There was a book called The Brother Surgeons, about John Hunter and his brother. Famous surgeons way back. Lucky I didn't do his experiment. He infected himself with syphilis. He subsequently died by syphilis years later, when he was an old professor, from his own experiment probably. So, this tradition of dangerous experiments exists. I didn't think my experiment was particularly dangerous. I had to get past this hurdle of fulfilling Koch's Postulates. I studied the literature, and there were a few subtle hints that people would have no symptoms when they had this infection. When I spoke to ulcer patients, they couldn't tell me about any illness they had had. They were perfectly fine, and then they developed an ulcer. So I didn't think I would become unwell. I had treated a few patients with antibiotics successfully at that point, so I thought I could probably cure it. I was a bit overconfident in retrospect. I wanted to make sure that it did take, because I didn't know whether I'd have the guts to do this every week.?
Revisiting the history of Medicine is always a refreshing experience.
It is crucial for you to understand that this fight for your survival and for your dignity, or for that of your loved ones is in your hands and to continue your remarkable work.
Warm regards to all,
Olivier Ameisen, M.D. Visiting Professor of Medicine
State University of New York Downstate Medical Center
PS In the next few days (date still to be scheduled), I shall be talking about my book and my discovery on a radio show in the US, along with a few patients who are cured and are going to go by their full name, as well as two physicians who have cured many patients using my method. One is a professor of psychiatry and neuroscience. The other one is an addiction psychiatrist. It is critical that patients start disclosing their names and accept to appear on TV, as has happened in France, Germany and Brazil. This contributes to eliminate the shame, the stigma that are associated with this disease and that limit the struggle against this disease. Who is afraid of somebody who does not dare showing his face, giving his full name?
For those interested in taking a look at my publications in peer-reviewed medical journals, please visit PubMed, the official Website of the U.S. National Library of Medicine and of the National Institutes of Health PubMed home
And type: Ameisen O
It will list 23 publications. Those relevant to Addiction are the following seven:
1. Ameisen O.
Alcohol-use disorders.
Lancet. 2009 May 2;373(9674):1519; author reply 1519-20.
2. Ameisen O.
Are the effects of Gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) partly physiological in alcohol dependence.
American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse. 2008;34(2):235-6.
3. Ameisen O.
Topiramate as treatment for alcohol dependence.
JAMA. 2008 Jan 30;299(4):405; author reply 406-7.1.
4. Ameisen O.
Gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB)-deficiency in alcohol-dependence?
Alcohol and Alcoholism. 2007 Sep-Oct;42(5):506. Epub 2007 Aug 1.
5. Ameisen O.
Baclofen as a craving-suppressing agent.
CNS Drugs 2007; 21 (8): 693. Reply. CNS Drugs 2007; 21 (8): 693-694
6. Ameisen O.
Naltrexone treatment for alcohol dependency.
JAMA. 2005 Aug 24;294(8):899-900; author reply 900.
7. Ameisen O.
Complete and prolonged suppression of symptoms and consequences of alcohol-dependence using high-dose baclofen: a self-case report of a physician.
Alcohol and Alcoholism. 2005 Mar-Apr;40(2):147-50. Epub 2004 Dec 13.
If one compares the resistance of many experts in the addiction field in academia, one should think of what happened in 1982, when Drs Barry Marshall and Robin Warren (Nobel prize in Medicine 2005) proved that a bacteria - helicobacter pylori ? was at the origin of gastro-intestinal ulcers. When I was a medical students, the dogma had it that like for alcoholism and addiction today, ulcers were a ?complex, multifactorial problem?. At its origins, psychosomatic/psychiatric disorders, eating habits, stress, heredity etc? The treatment required regular visits to a gastro-enterologist, weekly sessions of psychotherapy and expensive inefficient medications.
The discovery, to paraphrase Dr. Barry Marshall was harshly fought by three lobbies: the gastro-enterologists who were making a living of performing endoscopies, psychiatrists and psychologists who were making a fortune from this life-long disease and the pharmaceutical industry.
Here are excerpts of an interview of Barry Marshall in 1998:
Barry Marshall Interview -- Academy of Achievement
?It was a campaign, everyone was against me. But I knew I was right, because I actually had done a couple of years' work at that point. I had a few backers. And when I was criticized by gastroenterologists, I knew that they were mostly making their living doing endoscopies on ulcer patients. So I'm going to show you guys. A few years from now you'll be saying, "Hey! Where did all those endoscopies go to?" And it will be because I was treating ulcers with antibiotics.
Do you think there was an economic motive that made some people unwilling to consider this?
Barry Marshall: That's true. The livelihood of gastroenterologists and many of the drug companies depended on these drugs that were worth billions of dollars, treating millions of people with ulcers. And the thing about ulcers is they come back every second year, that's why they're always thought to be constitutional, or emotional, or caused by stress, because the patient's lifestyle would stay the same and maybe each winter he would get his ulcer back. Gastroenterologists, it seemed to me, only need a few hundred patients. They would do the same endoscopy on the patient each year. He would come back with ulcer symptoms, they'd put the scope down and say, "Yes, you've got an ulcer again. Try this other ulcer medication." There was always a new one to try on the patients in the '80s. And I would say, "Hang on a minute. There's something wrong here. When you see an ulcer, you give the patient Tagamet. And if the patient doesn't have an ulcer, you give the patient Tagamet. Why are we doing this endoscopy when they all get Tagamet?" That was the big drug in those days. I was a little skeptical of that diagnosis of being neurotic or a little stressful. If we didn't find anything there, particularly in women, we would say, "You're under a lot of stress, my dear. You haven't really got anything wrong with yourself. We'll give you an antidepressant." I used to see this happening so often in women whose biopsies were very, very inflamed with these bacteria.
What did you do at that point?
Barry Marshall: Well, you know, there is a tradition in medicine of medical researchers testing out their own new discovery on themselves. So, I'd heard about this. There was a book called The Brother Surgeons, about John Hunter and his brother. Famous surgeons way back. Lucky I didn't do his experiment. He infected himself with syphilis. He subsequently died by syphilis years later, when he was an old professor, from his own experiment probably. So, this tradition of dangerous experiments exists. I didn't think my experiment was particularly dangerous. I had to get past this hurdle of fulfilling Koch's Postulates. I studied the literature, and there were a few subtle hints that people would have no symptoms when they had this infection. When I spoke to ulcer patients, they couldn't tell me about any illness they had had. They were perfectly fine, and then they developed an ulcer. So I didn't think I would become unwell. I had treated a few patients with antibiotics successfully at that point, so I thought I could probably cure it. I was a bit overconfident in retrospect. I wanted to make sure that it did take, because I didn't know whether I'd have the guts to do this every week.?
Revisiting the history of Medicine is always a refreshing experience.
It is crucial for you to understand that this fight for your survival and for your dignity, or for that of your loved ones is in your hands and to continue your remarkable work.
Warm regards to all,
Olivier Ameisen, M.D. Visiting Professor of Medicine
State University of New York Downstate Medical Center
PS In the next few days (date still to be scheduled), I shall be talking about my book and my discovery on a radio show in the US, along with a few patients who are cured and are going to go by their full name, as well as two physicians who have cured many patients using my method. One is a professor of psychiatry and neuroscience. The other one is an addiction psychiatrist. It is critical that patients start disclosing their names and accept to appear on TV, as has happened in France, Germany and Brazil. This contributes to eliminate the shame, the stigma that are associated with this disease and that limit the struggle against this disease. Who is afraid of somebody who does not dare showing his face, giving his full name?
For those interested in taking a look at my publications in peer-reviewed medical journals, please visit PubMed, the official Website of the U.S. National Library of Medicine and of the National Institutes of Health PubMed home
And type: Ameisen O
It will list 23 publications. Those relevant to Addiction are the following seven:
1. Ameisen O.
Alcohol-use disorders.
Lancet. 2009 May 2;373(9674):1519; author reply 1519-20.
2. Ameisen O.
Are the effects of Gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) partly physiological in alcohol dependence.
American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse. 2008;34(2):235-6.
3. Ameisen O.
Topiramate as treatment for alcohol dependence.
JAMA. 2008 Jan 30;299(4):405; author reply 406-7.1.
4. Ameisen O.
Gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB)-deficiency in alcohol-dependence?
Alcohol and Alcoholism. 2007 Sep-Oct;42(5):506. Epub 2007 Aug 1.
5. Ameisen O.
Baclofen as a craving-suppressing agent.
CNS Drugs 2007; 21 (8): 693. Reply. CNS Drugs 2007; 21 (8): 693-694
6. Ameisen O.
Naltrexone treatment for alcohol dependency.
JAMA. 2005 Aug 24;294(8):899-900; author reply 900.
7. Ameisen O.
Complete and prolonged suppression of symptoms and consequences of alcohol-dependence using high-dose baclofen: a self-case report of a physician.
Alcohol and Alcoholism. 2005 Mar-Apr;40(2):147-50. Epub 2004 Dec 13.
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