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    #1

    Getting a Baclofen perscription?

    Hi, I have been wine free for 9 days now...but I can feel the anxiety ebbing and flowing throughout the day. After reading a lot of posts, I think that my best bet to being AF is trying Baclofen--could be my "golden ticket" (along with desire and determination to quit)

    Here are my worries...I am worried that when I go see the Dr. on Thurday, she won't perscribe it for me--partly because this med. is not originally used to treat people with drinking problems...and partly because she may suggest going to AA instead or doing something medication free---which I really don't want to do, especially at the beginning of my journey.

    Any advice or comments concerning talking to my Dr. would be greatly appreciated!!

    Does anyone have any stories about talking to your Dr.'s?

    And, why people order their meds on-line?


    :thanks: for helping me out----a feel like a fish just learning to swim
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    #2
    Getting a Baclofen perscription?

    Hi Wonka: I ordered baclofen on-line first and had instant, great results. I don't have health insurance or a doctor, so it was by far the simplest choice for me. Then, since it worked so well and because it's so cheap, even without insurance, I called a friend who is a doctor and made an appointment.

    I took (and left with the doctor) a copy of Ameisen's book, and print-outs of all the papers that have been published. There's a thread called "Consolidated Baclofen Information" here in the meds section that has all of those papers. With all of that, I was able to get an on-going prescription for 80 mg/day. So I had to continue to order on-line to titrate up as high as I needed. The doctor knew I was doing that; but apparently that's the highest dosage recommended here in the U.S., and that's as high as she will prescribe.

    That's how it is for me. I get baclofen both via prescription and on-line.

    If you haven't yet, I highly recommend that you spend a lot of time reading the baclofen threads, going back as far as last fall, when quite a few people were doing it for the first time. By reading everything that was being written, I felt confident enough to give it a go on my own, and confident enough to bring it up with a doctor, knowing that my well-being didn't hinge on her decision. It has just been a bit of a help to get the expense down (although now that I think of it, given the fees I paid for the office visits, that may not be the case at all! lol!).

    But she did send me a patient who needed to quit drinking so I could coach her through the protocol, so if that's another life saved, it's all good.

    Good luck. And don't be discouraged if you don't get what you need at your doctor's. There are lots of avenues and lots of people who have been down them to consult.
    "Wherever you are is the entry point." --Kabir

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      #3
      Getting a Baclofen perscription?

      I bought it online because I was too ashamed to tell my doctor I'm an alkie.
      Plus, most won't prescribe at the levels most need to get to "the switch". For me, that was 245mg. For others, it's much less. If you have already gone 9 days AF, you will sail thru it with the Bac. I wasn't able to quit even taking Bac until I got up to 245.
      Go before that fire there, at the altar of your heart
      That fire of who you really are and be consumed by it fully
      Surrender everything into the fire of that love until you are one with that love. You ARE that love.
      Tilak Pyle Altar of the Heart

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        #4
        Getting a Baclofen perscription?

        Thanks Redthread12 & PhoenixRising--both good advice.

        Rhoenixrising--I too am embarrassed to tell my doctor about my drinking...but really, when I think about it, it is her job to help--right? So, Redthread12 I will definately print info about baclofen for my doctor, and hope she will give me what I need. There is also a drug & alcohol center in town....maybe if my doc. doesn't give me what I need, maybe I will look them up on line...and pay them a visit.

        I'll let you know what happens on Thursday, cross your fingers

        Wonka

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          #5
          Getting a Baclofen perscription?

          You could also go to an out of town doctor if one were available. I have no drug coverage but it is not at all expensive to buy the 10 mg tablets generic with an Rx. The on line pharmacys do a huge mark up for those without an rx.
          I agree that, since you are already AF, you may not need as much bac as some on this forum. I was about 5 days AF when I started bac and never even knew I was waiting for a "switch". I just stayed AF for over 7 months now. My highest dose was about 80-90/day and I have now tapered to 30/d as a maintenance for now. I want to be AF for a year before I consider stopping it entirely.
          Good luck on this extraordinary journey.
          Sunny

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            #6
            Getting a Baclofen perscription?

            Sunny, wow 7 months AF--that is fantastic!! Thanks for the advice and the mg you were taking. I will post again after I get back from the doc.

            Stay healthy,

            Wonka

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              #7
              Getting a Baclofen perscription?

              Here in Australia my general practicioner was unwilling to try baclofen since it isn't officially used for alcoholism treatment, even though he knew I had already tried virtually all other treatments and was drinking about 21 standard drinks every night (for years). Regular doctors here simply don't have the time to study off-label uses of medications or detailed addiction or mental health issues, and many also don't like patients suggesting their own medications!

              Two other doctors were willing to prescribe it as a trial; one is an addiction specialist. In both cases the official maximum dose was more or less the upper limit these doctors were willing to prescribe, which is 75 mg per day in this country. The addiction specialist was prepared to cautiously go up to 100 mg but he gave me warnings about baclofen being "like a benzodiazepine" and "addictive" because it is a GABA agonist...even though it is a GABA-B agonist and benzos are GABA-A.

              Anyway I was unable to tolerate severe insomniac reactions to high-dose baclofen and found sobriety largely via other methods, but if I had needed to use amounts like 150-250 mg per day, I would have had to either go to 2-3 doctors at the same time or order a large portion of my baclofen online. I'm not recommending illegal or questionable methods to others here, just stating what I would have done. As the addiction guy said, prescribing an off-label drug at off-label doses is something that almost no doctor is going to take on. They are just too scared of something coming back on them if anything goes wrong, and they have no experience or official references to use as guides in prescribing baclofen at the very large doses that are said to be needed for effective alcoholism treatment.

              I wish you all the best, and I also hope others here can prove me wrong about doctors and high-dose baclofen!!

              EDIT : Please don't take my post as a deliberate discouragement, I am just giving a summary of how things are here with baclofen and doctors.

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