After the recent rumors on this board I contacted Dr. Ameisen at his personal website. He gave me permission to post this portion of his response.
Loud and clear: of course I HAVE NOT RELAPSED!
As you know if you have read my book, how could I relapse?
Do I have any merit? None. It is simply impossible for anybody who is on baclofen at adequate dose to relapse.
Besides, it has been over seven years that I have been entirely free of the disease and ironically, while some chose to drink in a non-dependent way (that is, as social drinkers do) on baclofen, I have personally entirely lost any pleasure in drinking so that drinking a single glass of any liquor would be a rather disgusting experience for me.
These rumors are excellent news though. They are in fact very old but are being amplified as my treatment is solidly establishing itself as the one and only treatment that completely suppresses addiction. The rumors started being orchestrated in 2009, after my book was published, when a very small number of unethical and money-greedy addiction specialists started seeing results and feared for their personal future. While they refused to prescribe baclofen, patients received baclofen from their GP's (GPs are now by far the main prescribers) or from other addiction experts. Within only days or sometimes weeks, their addiction was completely suppressed, effortlessly.
What is remarkable, is that my book and my papers in the most prestigious medical peer-reviewed medical journals (including JAMA and Lancet) led the elite of addiction medicine specialists, psychiatrists and internists to invite me to lecture or give grand rounds in many universities such as Harvard, Columbia, New York University/Bellevue, University of Berlin to quote only a few.
Please reassure everybody on the forum. At the first place, my addiction as well as my discovery were published by myself in a prestigious medical journal, Alcohol and Alcoholism in 2004. I am the only practicing physician who has openly disclosed his alcoholism using his full name. This coud have ruined my career. But I did not care. My goal as you know was to help save patients who are living the hell of addiction to finally die of the disease, since as is published in the medical literature, there is no other efficient treatment than the one I discovered: high-dose baclofen. But honesty pays. As early as december 2008, in recognition for my discovery, I was offerred a position of visiting professor of medicine at State University of New York Downstate Medical Center which is my current position.
Should I, in the future run into any type of medical problem: should baclofen stop its effect (which is highly unlikely because in nearly 50 years, this has never been reported with any patient treated with oral baclofen for muscular spasms, nor has it been reported for the hundreds of patients successfully treated with my baclofen protocol for addiction for as long as six years), you can be assured that I would immediately publish a paper in Alcohol and Alcoholism to inform the medical community about such a possibility so that they can help patients. And I would of course inform the media.
Also if, in the future, for any reason, no longer be able to use baclofen, I surely would not drink. Drinking is not a knee-jerk reflex. Would I even feel any worse if I stopped being on baclofen?
As I did not wait for anybody to break my anonymity about my former illness, why would I wait for somebody to spread the news?
Just ask anybody on MWO to question: what could the ulterior motives be, for the "good samaritans" who expresses such sudden concern with my health and seem to know much more about it than I myself do?
The truth is that the "anti-baclofen" lobby is entirely destabilized. They see that despite their efforts, doctors are now routinely prescribing high-dose baclofen in the US as well as in Europe. They are petrified because academia is now solidly stands behind and prescribes my treatment. At the invitation of the head of psychiatry and addiction medicine at the university of Z?rich, Switzerland, Dr. Rudolf Stohler, who has long (as many doctors everywhere) been "prescribing" my book to all of his patients, I gave a lecture in front of 200 people on January 27, 2011. As a result, we will soon start a clinical trial, but if you look at the homepage of the Swiss Society of Addiction Medicine (SSAM), you will see "quote of the week : Pr. Ameisen : "Abstinence is torture". This "quote of the week" has now been running for its 3rd month!
Zitat der Woche | SSAM - Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Suchtmedizin - Société Suisse de Médecine de l'Addiction
In late Febrruary, there has been a massive offensive by the French media to call it a scandal that despite the hundreds of patients whose lives have been saved and the rapidly growing number of doctors who prescribe my treatment, resistance to a life-saving treatment, high-dose baclofen continues in some circles. The media ranges from "Sciences et Avenir", a science monthly magazine that has devoted its editorial and 8 pages of its February issue to rave about the results, to Paris-Match, a landmark weekly magazine that has a circulation of around one million and that has devoted 4 pages including a long interview of me and put a 2 minute Youtube section with a Q&A in which I am asked to describe how I made this discovery. Paris Match and Sciences et Avenir were both published on the same day, February 24, 2011. It was followed a few days later by"Europe 1", one of France's leading radio station that interviewed me on the same topic.
The same has happened in Germany.
If one wishes to have the information on what is happening, the best is to go to my official websites.
For those who read French, my French one is currently entirely updated:
Olivier Ameisen - site officiel mis ? jour par le Professeur Ameisen lui m?me -
The English/German/French is not completely up to date:
Olivier Ameisen, MD
There are other source of information such as forums in France. As always, they are of uneven quality when it comes to the information they contain. One, that has recently been formed, seems of very good quality:
Forum baclofene et alcool - Un NOUVEAU forum d'entraide pour ceux qui ont un probleme avec l'alcoolisme
In this one, there is a gentleman who has been disease-free for a couple of years and has a drink when he wishes. His name is "Anuck" on the forum and he is perfectly fluent in English.
All of that said, what counts is facts, not fiction and rumors.
These invented rumors are vicious because they have one and unique goal: to try to discredit baclofen, the only treatment that stops addiction altogether, and for that very reason. As I wrote above, and as the media is powerfully pointing out, there are some who seem to profit more from an alcoholic who is severely ill than from one whose disease is completely suppressed. The fact that their authors of the rumors are trying to amplify them as loud is a VERY good sign. They are overwhelmed and powerless. Since they do not have a single medical/scientific 'anti-baclofen' argument, they are reduced to invent pathetic gossip. Simply ignore them, as they have done in France. Patients, doctors and baclofen do the work very well."
:yeahthat:
Loud and clear: of course I HAVE NOT RELAPSED!
As you know if you have read my book, how could I relapse?
Do I have any merit? None. It is simply impossible for anybody who is on baclofen at adequate dose to relapse.
Besides, it has been over seven years that I have been entirely free of the disease and ironically, while some chose to drink in a non-dependent way (that is, as social drinkers do) on baclofen, I have personally entirely lost any pleasure in drinking so that drinking a single glass of any liquor would be a rather disgusting experience for me.
These rumors are excellent news though. They are in fact very old but are being amplified as my treatment is solidly establishing itself as the one and only treatment that completely suppresses addiction. The rumors started being orchestrated in 2009, after my book was published, when a very small number of unethical and money-greedy addiction specialists started seeing results and feared for their personal future. While they refused to prescribe baclofen, patients received baclofen from their GP's (GPs are now by far the main prescribers) or from other addiction experts. Within only days or sometimes weeks, their addiction was completely suppressed, effortlessly.
What is remarkable, is that my book and my papers in the most prestigious medical peer-reviewed medical journals (including JAMA and Lancet) led the elite of addiction medicine specialists, psychiatrists and internists to invite me to lecture or give grand rounds in many universities such as Harvard, Columbia, New York University/Bellevue, University of Berlin to quote only a few.
Please reassure everybody on the forum. At the first place, my addiction as well as my discovery were published by myself in a prestigious medical journal, Alcohol and Alcoholism in 2004. I am the only practicing physician who has openly disclosed his alcoholism using his full name. This coud have ruined my career. But I did not care. My goal as you know was to help save patients who are living the hell of addiction to finally die of the disease, since as is published in the medical literature, there is no other efficient treatment than the one I discovered: high-dose baclofen. But honesty pays. As early as december 2008, in recognition for my discovery, I was offerred a position of visiting professor of medicine at State University of New York Downstate Medical Center which is my current position.
Should I, in the future run into any type of medical problem: should baclofen stop its effect (which is highly unlikely because in nearly 50 years, this has never been reported with any patient treated with oral baclofen for muscular spasms, nor has it been reported for the hundreds of patients successfully treated with my baclofen protocol for addiction for as long as six years), you can be assured that I would immediately publish a paper in Alcohol and Alcoholism to inform the medical community about such a possibility so that they can help patients. And I would of course inform the media.
Also if, in the future, for any reason, no longer be able to use baclofen, I surely would not drink. Drinking is not a knee-jerk reflex. Would I even feel any worse if I stopped being on baclofen?
As I did not wait for anybody to break my anonymity about my former illness, why would I wait for somebody to spread the news?
Just ask anybody on MWO to question: what could the ulterior motives be, for the "good samaritans" who expresses such sudden concern with my health and seem to know much more about it than I myself do?
The truth is that the "anti-baclofen" lobby is entirely destabilized. They see that despite their efforts, doctors are now routinely prescribing high-dose baclofen in the US as well as in Europe. They are petrified because academia is now solidly stands behind and prescribes my treatment. At the invitation of the head of psychiatry and addiction medicine at the university of Z?rich, Switzerland, Dr. Rudolf Stohler, who has long (as many doctors everywhere) been "prescribing" my book to all of his patients, I gave a lecture in front of 200 people on January 27, 2011. As a result, we will soon start a clinical trial, but if you look at the homepage of the Swiss Society of Addiction Medicine (SSAM), you will see "quote of the week : Pr. Ameisen : "Abstinence is torture". This "quote of the week" has now been running for its 3rd month!
Zitat der Woche | SSAM - Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Suchtmedizin - Société Suisse de Médecine de l'Addiction
In late Febrruary, there has been a massive offensive by the French media to call it a scandal that despite the hundreds of patients whose lives have been saved and the rapidly growing number of doctors who prescribe my treatment, resistance to a life-saving treatment, high-dose baclofen continues in some circles. The media ranges from "Sciences et Avenir", a science monthly magazine that has devoted its editorial and 8 pages of its February issue to rave about the results, to Paris-Match, a landmark weekly magazine that has a circulation of around one million and that has devoted 4 pages including a long interview of me and put a 2 minute Youtube section with a Q&A in which I am asked to describe how I made this discovery. Paris Match and Sciences et Avenir were both published on the same day, February 24, 2011. It was followed a few days later by"Europe 1", one of France's leading radio station that interviewed me on the same topic.
The same has happened in Germany.
If one wishes to have the information on what is happening, the best is to go to my official websites.
For those who read French, my French one is currently entirely updated:
Olivier Ameisen - site officiel mis ? jour par le Professeur Ameisen lui m?me -
The English/German/French is not completely up to date:
Olivier Ameisen, MD
There are other source of information such as forums in France. As always, they are of uneven quality when it comes to the information they contain. One, that has recently been formed, seems of very good quality:
Forum baclofene et alcool - Un NOUVEAU forum d'entraide pour ceux qui ont un probleme avec l'alcoolisme
In this one, there is a gentleman who has been disease-free for a couple of years and has a drink when he wishes. His name is "Anuck" on the forum and he is perfectly fluent in English.
All of that said, what counts is facts, not fiction and rumors.
These invented rumors are vicious because they have one and unique goal: to try to discredit baclofen, the only treatment that stops addiction altogether, and for that very reason. As I wrote above, and as the media is powerfully pointing out, there are some who seem to profit more from an alcoholic who is severely ill than from one whose disease is completely suppressed. The fact that their authors of the rumors are trying to amplify them as loud is a VERY good sign. They are overwhelmed and powerless. Since they do not have a single medical/scientific 'anti-baclofen' argument, they are reduced to invent pathetic gossip. Simply ignore them, as they have done in France. Patients, doctors and baclofen do the work very well."
:yeahthat:
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