Antabuse implant, anyone any experience?

[_EndOfTheLine_]

Hi all,

Need your help. I was wondering if anyone has any experience with disulfiram implants? I am considering using this company: Aluston Health five day alcoholism treatment for alcohol addiction. to get one and I'm wondering if anyone can advise me (who aren't shills!) because I've become pretty desperate (after an "unsuccessful" run at baclofen- I became very teary all the time, with very low doses and that didn't stop after two weeks at the same dose). If you know of any alternative companies providing the treatment or if you know anything at all please get in touch. Especially if there are surgeons in the UK who do this implant, that would be helpful.

Cheers,

EoTL

[spacebebe01]

Antabuse implant, anyone any experience?

I have not heard of any surgeons in the UK that do the implant, why do you think you need the implant and not take the tablets, have you tried them and not bees successful? I am taking antabuse and find it very good, I know I cannot drink while I am taking it and would need to stop taking it for several days, a week or more to be able to drink and during this time I think I would be able to reconsider the idea of drinking. I have always relapsed when the craving hits and cant do that now.. I have just started taking bac as well. Sorry I cant be of more help but I have never heard of anyone having this implant (except George Best!).
I looked at the site tho and if I couldnt stop drinking and needed a detox and had the money I would probably go for it.

[LadyLush]

Antabuse implant, anyone any experience?

EOL,
I take the effervescent kind that is very mind controlling and works!

Please reconsider...

LL:l:l

[_EndOfTheLine_]

Antabuse implant, anyone any experience?

The problem is that I always stop taking the meds and plan to drink. This might be the last throw of the dice.

[Greg]

Antabuse implant, anyone any experience?

_EndOfTheLine_;1210629 wrote: The problem is that I always stop taking the meds and plan to drink. This might be the last throw of the dice.

I inquired about disulfiram/Antabuse implants with a company here in Australia, but they told me (about 2 years ago) they had given up on them (at that stage) because they had not been very effective. Apparently they lacked the ability to deliver enough disulfiram into the bloodstream over the lifetime of the product to be an effective deterrent (presumably discovered by patients who successfully risked drinking on them). I would still be very interested in this myself, and am hoping someone else on this forum may know of a more successful implant.

Unfortunately yours is a problem I have encountered at times, despite having used oral Antabuse successfully in the past. My only long-term success with it has been when I also knew I had access to an alcohol substitute every night, which removed my planning to stop the pills so I could drink and so get rid of the dreadful depressive cravings. Unfortunately my alcohol substitute at that time was cannabis, which I cannot recommend to anyone here. It ended up causing me psychological problems too. This predicament is why I have often thought a prescribed alcohol substitute could be immensely helpful in extremely difficult cases, at least temporarily, when all other treatments have failed.

Do you know if there are untreated underlying reasons for your need to drink, or is it purely obsessive compulsive (i.e. addictive) drinking? If there are any unresolved issues that you are drinking to escape from, then it's unlikely that the desperation to drink will lessen until they are somehow addressed (via effective medications, counselling/therapy, hypnotherapy, etc). If the drinking is a ritualistic, specific-time way of living, like mine has also been, then definite pre-planned activities (preferably with other people) at the times you normally drink will be vital, otherwise you may become restless, bored, and very uncomfortable at these times when no longer drinking. I tend to dislike AA as a rule, but finding a few uplifting meetings you feel comfortable in could fill in the hours when you would otherwise drink. Some meetings can be tedious, dull, boring, and repetitive however so some shopping around is needed.

As a last resort, inpatient rehab can give vitally needed time out. Around here a few exist that are public, and therefore not prohibitively expensive, and I am considering one of them if one or two other last-ditch ideas do not work out. I am currently relying on oral Antabuse plus Xanax but am too worried about benzodiazepine tolerance to rely on this indefinitely. Another thought has been Antabuse + low dose baclofen + Campral, in the hope that the Campral may reinforce the effects of baclofen. No tolerance should happen with this, but it's all theory only...and I'm still trying to find a doctor who may be willing to prescribe this combination.

Whatever you try, good luck with it all.

Edit : I am not a doctor, so please realise this is just the opinion of a non-medically trained layman.

[Seethepony]

Antabuse implant, anyone any experience?

Pete Doherty had a surgical implant to stop him taking heroin.

Didn't work. 3 times.

[_EndOfTheLine_]

Antabuse implant, anyone any experience?

Greg;1210990 wrote: I inquired about disulfiram/Antabuse implants with a company here in Australia, but they told me (about 2 years ago) they had given up on them (at that stage) because they had not been very effective. Apparently they lacked the ability to deliver enough disulfiram into the bloodstream over the lifetime of the product to be an effective deterrent (presumably discovered by patients who successfully risked drinking on them). I would still be very interested in this myself, and am hoping someone else on this forum may know of a more successful implant.

Unfortunately yours is a problem I have encountered at times, despite having used oral Antabuse successfully in the past. My only long-term success with it has been when I also knew I had access to an alcohol substitute every night, which removed my planning to stop the pills so I could drink and so get rid of the dreadful depressive cravings. Unfortunately my alcohol substitute at that time was cannabis, which I cannot recommend to anyone here. It ended up causing me psychological problems too. This predicament is why I have often thought a prescribed alcohol substitute could be immensely helpful in extremely difficult cases, at least temporarily, when all other treatments have failed.

Do you know if there are untreated underlying reasons for your need to drink, or is it purely obsessive compulsive (i.e. addictive) drinking? If there are any unresolved issues that you are drinking to escape from, then it's unlikely that the desperation to drink will lessen until they are somehow addressed (via effective medications, counselling/therapy, hypnotherapy, etc). If the drinking is a ritualistic, specific-time way of living, like mine has also been, then definite pre-planned activities (preferably with other people) at the times you normally drink will be vital, otherwise you may become restless, bored, and very uncomfortable at these times when no longer drinking. I tend to dislike AA as a rule, but finding a few uplifting meetings you feel comfortable in could fill in the hours when you would otherwise drink. Some meetings can be tedious, dull, boring, and repetitive however so some shopping around is needed.

As a last resort, inpatient rehab can give vitally needed time out. Around here a few exist that are public, and therefore not prohibitively expensive, and I am considering one of them if one or two other last-ditch ideas do not work out. I am currently relying on oral Antabuse plus Xanax but am too worried about benzodiazepine tolerance to rely on this indefinitely. Another thought has been Antabuse + low dose baclofen + Campral, in the hope that the Campral may reinforce the effects of baclofen. No tolerance should happen with this, but it's all theory only...and I'm still trying to find a doctor who may be willing to prescribe this combination.

Whatever you try, good luck with it all.

Edit : I am not a doctor, so please realise this is just the opinion of a non-medically trained layman.

Thanks for the info, I'm concerned about the implant not providing a high enough dose.

[spacebebe01]

Antabuse implant, anyone any experience?

Hi EOTH have you considered taking oral antabuse alongside something else. Maybe you could try it alongside bac or if you dont want to go the bac route maybe campral. That way youd be attack it from both sides, along with coming on here regularly and any other support of things you do at home, diet excercise, AA, relaxation can all help. You could make a fresh pesitive start and make a plan of how you are going to do this, put your all into it and it will work

[_EndOfTheLine_]

Antabuse implant, anyone any experience?

spacebebe01;1211799 wrote: Hi EOTH have you considered taking oral antabuse alongside something else. Maybe you could try it alongside bac or if you dont want to go the bac route maybe campral. That way youd be attack it from both sides, along with coming on here regularly and any other support of things you do at home, diet excercise, AA, relaxation can all help. You could make a fresh pesitive start and make a plan of how you are going to do this, put your all into it and it will work

Yeah I did take tthe oral antabuse but I tended to plan my relapses way in advance. I am already taking campral and have taken naltrexone and bac in the past. Naltrexone didn't really do much except reduce the severity of my drinking episodes and baclofen made me cry a lot! I'm really worried about xmas, I'll be staying with my parents and don't want to put them through anything!

[_EndOfTheLine_]

Antabuse implant, anyone any experience?

My GP has agreed to implant the drug provided that I can source the implantable pellets....I haven't the foggiest idea where I'll be able to find these though, and if anyone has any ideas they would be most appreciated.

[_EndOfTheLine_]

Antabuse implant, anyone any experience?

I have found out that the implant is called Disulfiram WZF, it seems difficult to get unless you live in Poland however.

[_EndOfTheLine_]

Antabuse implant, anyone any experience?

Heading off to Krakow Poland from Scotland tomorrow to get an implant...my plan is to land there, find a doctor to prescribe it and then relax.... I'm going to get my doctor at home to implant it, don't want to risk infection away from home.

I know I'm probably wasting my time with this but I have to satisfy my curiosity. Its strange travelling alone though, I'm worried about meeting someone in Krakow that I know from home because I'll have no explanation as to why I'm there. Ha, low risk but I can't imagine what I'd say

[LadyLush]

Antabuse implant, anyone any experience?

End,

I am late. I have read so much negativity on this. The implant seems extreme.
I will PM you.
Greg, you have Antabuse experience..


Thanks:l
LL

[Greg]

Antabuse implant, anyone any experience?

I have just read that one clinic here in Australia offers Antabuse implants. This is their website:

Welcome - :: PsychnSoul Addiction Treatment ::

They could possibly offer advice about the implants to people not living in Australia, such as where else you may be able to get them.

Personally I am looking further into this, since normal Antabuse helped me in the past. I was taking a couple of other things as well for the cravings. Some people could benefit from baclofen along with the Antabuse. This clinic also offers naltrexone implants but I'm not sure if they would help much with alcohol cravings, since nearly everyone seems to think naltrexone only helps when used according to The Sinclair Method. It seems odd however that this place would offer naltrexone implants if the drug really does have little success on its own for cravings, unless the idea is to stop people from going into a full relapse if they have a few drinks.

[Greg]

Antabuse implant, anyone any experience?

A follow up to my above post:

The clinic in Australia I was referring to has just told me they no longer offer Antabuse implants, because they are unable to obtain them anymore from their source in Europe. They are hoping a new formulation may become available from China in the future. Regarding the European implants, they said the drug remained effective for about a month, which was a shorter period of time than they had hoped, but also that this still helped some people.

They also tried to tell me that naltrexone by itself, i.e. not via TSM, is effective for alcohol cravings. I honestly cannot give an opinion on this however.