Xadrian's Baclofen Experience

[Xadrian]

The purpose of this thread is to provide all of you with some background information about me, the reason(s) why I started drinking and my experience with Baclofen to fight my drinking problem.

By doing so, (aspirant) Baclofen users can determine if they have a common story and maybe they will have a better insight if Baclofen can help them or not and how to use it.

I am not a medician and any advice I might give, should be followed at your own risk.
Where possible, use Baclofen under supervision of a doctor.

First I will give a summary of my background and how I came to Baclofen and the way it helped for me.
The rest I will try to post in chronological order, but in case I forget something, I will post it later (or edit a post. It's a big advantage that it is possible on this forum).

Although I will try to post regularly, I won't promise anything.

[Xadrian]

Xadrian's Baclofen Experience

Who is Xadrian

I am a 42 year old male who uses Baclofen for over 5 months now.
I'm 6 ft 5 inches and before using Baclofen I weighed 114 kg.
Oh yeah, for the ones that wonder: Xadrian is not my real name.

I am married and have 2 children (a boy of 6 yrs old and a boy of 3 yrs old).
I am self-employed for over six years now. I've had a lot of jobs before that, but somehow I got bored of each job I had. I never worked for more than 2 1/2 years for the same boss.

I have been drinking from when I was 16 yrs old. I guess the real drinking problem started when I was 20 and it worsened when I was 23. I'll explain in a later post.

I only drank beer and occasionally some wine. I have never liked distilled alcohol.
The recent years, I began to drink even more, until I drank 12 cans of beer (33 cl.) every 3 days or so.

The day after a drinking episode, I never drank. The day after that neither, but then I would experience a craving and the cycle started over again.
It's like a bucket. As long as it's empty, there's nothing wrong. When it's half full, there's still plenty of room in it. But when it's full, it's running over and it has to be empied.

In my case, the bucket was filled with stress. In times where there was less stress, it maybe took 4 days before the bucket was full and in times with a lot of stress it only took 2 days.

I have been able to postpone the drinking moment on pure will power, but unfortunately this caused my days to be very ineffective and since my family relies on my income, that was no option.

So I kept drinking 12 beers every 3 days or so. Mostly after 5 PM, but on Saturdays as early as 1 PM. Never before noon. Maybe I thought that that way I still had some control.

[Xadrian]

Xadrian's Baclofen Experience

How I met Baclofen

After admitting to myself a few years ago that I had a drinking problem (which is a very important moment for the decision to do something about it), I started doing research on the internet about successfully quitting or controlling alcohol abuse.

I pretty soon was aware that the AA wouldn't be a solution for me, because of their conviction that everything can be solved with religion.

Drugs like Refusal wouldn't help me either, because -while making it impossible to drink- it would make it nearly impossible for me to work.

For that reason all drugs that would make me a zombie wouldn't do the trick either.

Then, some two years ago, I read an article about Dr. Ameisens book and how he solved his drinking problem with high dose Baclofen.
Because I don't tend to believe in miracles (the same counts for miracle pills) , I didn't pay much attention at first, but still printed out the article.

I didn't go to a doctor with my problem, but tried to cure myself. I even made a cut back method which I called "Ready-Steady-Go" (Ready stands for admitting the problem, Steady stands for a steady alcohol intake instead of the binges and Go speaks for itself), which should get me off the alcohol in a year.
That hasn't been much of a success either.

After a while, I did some more research about Baclofen and found some interesting articles about a cocaine addicted muscle patient who had been given Baclofen for muscle problems and quit taking cocaine as a side-effect, rats that became indifferent for alcohol and cocaine, small scale studies on humans. Even that the University of Amsterdam had been given an anonimous donation of half a million euro for a large scale study on Baclofen for alcoholism problems.

Then I knew Baclofen could be the solution for me. But I didn't want to wait until 2014 when the results of the large scale study would be made public.

More about it in my next post.

[Xadrian]

Xadrian's Baclofen Experience

Trouble to get Baclofen

Armed with a thick bundle of paperwork from my research about Baclofen, I went to my GP and explained my alcohol problem, as well as my suggestion for the cure.
My GP was not familiar with Baclofen, but promised to read the home work I gave her and we made a new appointment for the following week.

When I returned a week later, she told me she discussed it with some colleagues an even with a psychiatrist, but that even the psychiatrist didn't find Baclofen a good idea.
She suggested that I made an appointment with the psychiatrist, who could help me prescribing me Refusal or other medication.

I refused, because I only had a drinking problem. I'm not mentally ill, so a psychiatrist would be a brdge too far.

I then made an appointment with another GP at my own expenses, for a second opinion.
This GP knew Baclofen from prescribing it to muscle patients, but told me he didn't want to prescribe it to me, because we live on a small island and if he does something against the advice of a colleage, who was my GP, he would get questions, blah blah blah.
Result: lost my money for a consult which was doomed to fail in advance.

Losing my hope, I even started to drink more.
Because Baclofen is a prescription medicine, there were no local pharmacists who would sell me the Baclofen.
Ordering it online would also be dangerous, because what if the first order would arrive in good order and the second would be confiscated by the Customs? Once you've started Baclofen, it's very dangerous to stop suddenly.

A friend of mine, who has a doctor's degree, had no objections prescribing it to me, but he is living abroad and his doctor's license is not valid over here.
Only possibility would be going to the Netherlands, get the prescription, get the medicine and return to Aruba. And that everey time I needed more Baclofen.
Because it's already difficult for me to pay all the bills every month, that wasn't an option either.

After a few months, I finally made the decision to return to my GP and ask a referral for the psychiatrist.

[Xadrian]

Xadrian's Baclofen Experience

First appointment with the psychiatrist

Armed with the same bundle of paper work, I had my first appointment with the psychiatrist on Friday, April 13, 2012.

I explained to him my drinking problem and he replied that there wer several drugs on the market that could help in reducing alcohol intake.

I replied that I was aware of those drugs, because I did a lot of research on the internet, but that Refusal and some other drugs were no option, fro reasons I mentioned in an earlier post.

I explained to him that I thought I found a drug that looked promising to me, but that I understood from my GP that she already discussed that with him and he didn't seem to like the idea.
He replied he didn't remember discussing that with my GP and I gave him the home work, as well as a titrating schedule I made, based on what I had read about it, combined with my own thoughts about it.
Fortunately , he appeared to be very open-minded and told me that, altough he had no experience with Baclofen as an ati-craving drug, he had no problem starting Baclofen, but first wanted to read the bunch of paperwork.

On April 21, 2012 I got my prescription and instructions to titrate up, according to my own schedule.

[Xadrian]

Xadrian's Baclofen Experience

Titrating up

My own theory about "hitting the switch" is that the switch is hit by a certain peak level.
Because the instructions of the Baclofen say that the dayly dose has to be divided in at least three times a day, I had to divide the day dose in 3 times, but no more to achieve the maximum peak level a.s.a.p.

Because I read a lot about people titrating up way too fast in their enthousiasm to hit the switch, I decided to be very, very careful with the titration upwards.
According to the Baclofen instructions, one should start with 3 times 5 mg per day and increase with 3 times 5 mg every 3 days.

This seemed to be a good idea to me, but instead of increasing 15 mg (total day dose) every 3 days, it appeared better to me to increase 5 mg (total increase) per day.

My schedule thus would be as following:

Day 1: 5- 5- 5
Day 2: 5- 5- 10
Day 3: 5- 10- 10
Day 4: 10- 10- 10

and so on, until I reached my switch.

This way, the increase was more fluently and the effects of the maximum intake would be mostly later on the day and when I was asleep.

According to my theory, the times of taking the Baclofen should be as even distributed over the day as possible, which would be 8 hours apart.
In my case this was 7:30 AM, 3:30 PM and 11:30 PM.

I made my schedule till 120 mg a day (40-40-40), but in the event it would be necessary, I could go up even more.

I intended not to go beyond 2 mg per kg of body weight (in my case 230 mg) per day, because on several forums (or is it fora?) I read stories of severe side effects from people who go beyond 2.5 mg/kg body weight.

[Xadrian]

Xadrian's Baclofen Experience

Effects and side effects when titrating up

On the way to finding my switch, I experienced some welcome efects, as well as some unwanted effects.

When starting Baclofen, 20 minutes after taking the very first half pill (5 mg.) I experienced a slight headache in the front of my head. Not very annoying and well bearable without taking Paracetamol, but still it was a side-effect.
I had the headaches for about two weeks after starting Baclofen.
The head-ache normally dissappeared 2 hours after taking a dose.

Another side-effect was that I became a little weak in my knees half an hour after taking a dose. This also disappeared within 2 hours. This "side-effect" is off course the original intention of Baclofen, which is a muscle relaxant.
I experienced this side effect for a month or so.

Related to the previous side-effect, I tended to easily drop small objects like a pen or so. I wondered if the muscles became less strong, but I tested it with a household scale: Before Baclofen I could press (pinch) over a hundred kg with my two hands, during the Baclofen I could still. My conclusion: only the signal from the brain to the muscles is being weakened, not the function of the muscles.
After a while, I got used to it and just (in my mind) applied some more pressure to small objects.

Another side-effect I experienced, was a better sleep, which I experienced as a welcome side-effect. When I got to bed, I fell asleep within 5 minutes and most of the nights slept without waking up. Before Baclofen, I sometimes could not sleep in and often woke up at 3 AM, not being able to get back to sleep.
Since I started Baclofen, I often go to bed at 11:00 PM or before, because I am sleepy.
These effects I still have.

While titrating up, I also experienced a "dip" at around 1:30 PM, with which I mean getting a little sleepy and loss of concentration. This especially occurred when browsing the internet or something like that, but not when being physical active or driving a car.
The "dip" disappeared about an hour later.
This is a side-effect I experienced for almost 3 months after starting and then it faded.

After starting Baclofen, my mood changed a little in a positive way.
I'm also more indifferent in things I always found very important, but don't appear to be that important after all. This effect I still have, but I consider this one as positive, because It makes me able to resign to certain situations that would normally have me troubled and stressed for quite some time.

And last, but not least, the most important effect:
Baclofen took away the cravings, reduced my alcohol intake drasticly and cured me from being an alcoholic. You can read the reducing in alcohol intake in my next post.

[Xadrian]

Xadrian's Baclofen Experience

Alcohol consumption while on Baclofen

Here's a log of my alcohol consumption while on Baclofen.
The units are 33 cl. cans of beer.

Before Baclofen: 12 cans roughly every 3 days

(The format of the next is Day# - daily dose of Baclofen - # of beers consumed)

1 15 10
2 20 7
3 25 2
4 30 12
5 35 0
6 40 3
7 45 6
8 50 6
9 55 4
10 60 2

[Xadrian]

Xadrian's Baclofen Experience

Hitting the switch

As you saw from the post before, I on average drank even more than usual.
For the major part, this can be explained by the fact that a friend of mine from abroad was staying with me and I took a kind of vacation.

Except for day 4, when I experienced one of my "full bucket" days and I had to drink because of the stress.

The following days, the beers didn't taste as good as normal and I began feeling different about drinking.

On April 30, 2012 I drank two beers, which didn't taste very well, but I drank them because I had them in the fridge. But I could feel the difference.

The following day, I experienced a small craving. I decided to increase suddenly from 60 mg the day before to 90 mg (30-30-30) to see if the craving would disappear.
And you bet it did, because after that I had it under control.

I was able to skip the beer aisle when doing groceries and I was able to do it laughing.
The beer had no longer control over me. Finally.
The so-called miracle pill indead proved to me to be a miracle pill.

I stayed at 90 mg for a month with no cravings and without beer before I tried finding my maintenance dose.

Regarding the switch I have the following theory: The switch is not the moment when you stop drinking, but the switch is the moment you gain control of your drinking instead of the drinking controlling you.
Don't fool yourself thinking you still didn't hit the switch because you still being able to drink or drinking because you want to drink.
The switch has been hit when you are able to refuse alcohol because you chose to.

For me it felt like the reset button had been pushed. That's the best way I can describe it.

[Xadrian]

Xadrian's Baclofen Experience

Finding the maintenance dose

After hitting the switch at 90 mg (which is by the way very low for a man of my weight) on May 1, 2012 I tried to reduce the Baclofen intake to find my maintenance dose.

Although my psychiatrist advised me to stay at 90 mg for at least a year, which according to him is the time after which the thoughts of alcohol usually fade a little, from my research I knew that the maintenance dose is lower than the switch dose and can only be found by trying out.

When a dose turns out to be too low, it can easily being corrected by taking an extra pill, and after that go back to the last dose before that moment, without having the risk of a drawback.

So after a month, I switched to 80 mg. per day, divided in 4 times.
This 4 times were 7:30 AM, 12:30 PM, 5:30 PM and 10:30 PM.
This worked out fine for me and I had no cravings.

When I divided the 80 mg in 8 times per day, just to see if that would take some side effects away, the cravings re-appeared after 4 days, so I went back to 80 mg in 4 times per day, without cravings.

After 50 days of alcohol abstinence, I had a huge argument with my wife and bought 12 beers. Not because I needed alcohol, but to show her that it was not impossible for me to get my bad behavior back.

The first one tasted very bitter (guess that's how beer is supposed to taste). After the 4th, they tasted more normal. After the 6th I almost had to throw up, but I forced myself to drink the rest, so I drank them all.
In the middle of the night, I woke up sweating severely and had a bad rest of the night.

After that I didn't drink any alcohol for over a month.

A month after decreasing the Baclofen to 80 mg, I decreased further to 70 mg (20-20-20-10) without problems. A month later to 60 mg (20-10-10-10).

One month later, I wanted to decrease to 45 mg (15-10-10-10). Because of the half life value, 50 mg (20-10-10-10) didn't seem logical.
Four days later: a craving. I was able to suppress is with an extra 10 mg and corrected the following day to 50 mg (20-10-10-10).

No cravings since then and I will stay at 50 mg for now, since this seems to be my maintenance dose.

My theory about it is that there's a difference in proportion between the half-life of Baclofen and the effects on the brain.
I experienced it before. Every 3rd or 4th day after decreasing the dose, I experience a (negative) change in mood, even became a little anxious.

Anyway, I'm very grateful for Baclofen. I have it under control.
Did I drink in the mean time? Yes I did. Without having cravings, I drank on average once a month 8 beers, when I decided to.

The last time was the day after I read the message that Anna had commited suicide, which hit me very hard. (Maybe I will tell something about how I came into contact with Anna in a future post, I don't know).
It took me 2 days before I could give it a place.
The first day I drank 4 beers, but people did not leave me alone, although I needed to.
The following day, I finally was able to be alone and drank 8 beers to drown my sadness.

Now I'm relatively OK again.

[JP.London]

Xadrian's Baclofen Experience

Priceless information. Thank you.

[Ne/Neva Eva]

Xadrian's Baclofen Experience

Hi, Xadrian. And welcome.

I am very, very sorry for your loss, Xadrian. And so sad for Anna's family. I can imagine that it was a terrible blow.

Thanks so much for posting the information. And congratulations! That reset button is pretty amazing isn't it? The pill worked out to be miraculous for me, too. It's been so long that I can't remember what a craving actually feels like but I'm amazed I don't feel them even when I'm under a remarkable amount of stress.

I hope you'll keep posting and encouraging others!
Cheers
Ne

[redcat]

Xadrian's Baclofen Experience

Hi Xadrian, Just read your information. Thank You so much, it IS very encouraging. I recently read the book of Dr. Ameisen, and am planning to start on Bac very soon. You described the side effects. but did not mention anything about sex life. Were there any side effects in terms of desire or erection?

[Xadrian]

Xadrian's Baclofen Experience

Sex life

Hi RedCat,

No problems with the sex life.

No reduced desire, no erection problems, no different feeling.
Only in the beginning, when titrating up, sometimes i fell asleep within 5 minutes after going to bed, which automatically means no sex.

Guess my sex life even improved because of not being too drunk and smelling like alcohol anymore.

[Xadrian]

Xadrian's Baclofen Experience

Baclofen research

Below is a summary of the information I gathered on the internet for the last couple of years, before starting taking Baclofen.
I checked all the links, none of them is a dead link.
Some are in Dutch, but that's only general information. You should be able to find that in English too, or otherwise translate it using Google translation.

I hope it will be of help to some of the aspirant Baclofen users getting started (or convince their doctors) and for the existing users, maybe there is some that you never read.

Articles/sites in Dutch:

General info:

Baclofen - Wikipedia
Baclofen - Medicijnen - Medicijninformatie | eFarma
Apotheek.nl - Medische informatie - Medicijnen - Baclofen
Apotheek.nl - Medische informatie - Klachten & ziektes - Alcoholontwenning
Dokters boycotten alcoholpil | Baclofen


Articles/sites in English:

Studies and trials:

Effectiveness and safety of baclofen for maintenance of alcohol abstinence in alcohol-dependent patients with liver cirrhosis: randomised, double-blind controlled study : The Lancet
BACLOFEN EFFICACY IN REDUCING ALCOHOL CRAVING AND INTAKE: A PRELIMINARY DOUBLE-BLIND RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED STUDY
Baclofen for alcohol dependence: a prel... [Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2004] - PubMed - NCBI
Effectiveness and safety of baclofen for maintenance ... [Lancet. 2007] - PubMed - NCBI
Role of GABA(B) receptor in alcohol dependence:... [Neurotox Res. 2004] - PubMed - NCBI
"The Efficacy of Baclofen in Reducing Alcohol Consumption and Decreasin" by Kelsey Bock

Ameisen:

Excerpt: 'The End of My Addiction' - ABC News
FAQ | Olivier Ameisen, MD

Other doctors:

Drug could offer respite for alcoholics
Baclofen and Alcoholism - Wellsphere
baclofen4alcoholism.com

Blog:

Baclofen Remedy