Baclofen nearly destroyed my life

[Otter]

Baclofen nearly destroyed my life

GolfMonster;1463142 wrote: Hi

Just think that I should put a little bit of balance to this alcohol drug treatment forum. BACLOFEN NEARLY DESTROYED MY LIFE. I followed the titration schedule and got up to about 250 mg/day. Problem is, I nearly lost my job as a result of the side effects: falling asleep at work, dizziness (tripping over), unable to think properly etc and general poor performance. As a result of that (and probably also a direct baclofen brain effect), I developed a serious anxiety problem when titrating down and I'm still plagued by it. Admittedly, this new anxiety/depression may have been a progression of my alcoholism, but I don't think so.

I stopped baclofen and decided to stop messing around with any of these drugs. Since April, about 6 drinking days and none since September. I still take baclofen 20 mg as required, but I would love to get off it but I still need it for anxiety. In an attempt at getting off it, my psych has started an SSRI. I am hoping.....

Anyway off alcohol through occasional antabuse, the odd support group meeting and SMART recovery.

The regulars on this forum will say "you didn't use it properly" etc etc, but the truth is is that many people are messing around with this stuff with false hope and it will NEVER work for them.

Bring on the controlled trials.... If you look at the evidence for baclofen, like all other drug treatments for alcohol the evidence is very soft. Yes statistically significant findings (or case reports!) but clinically meaningful (significant) treatment effects for most people? Not really.

In the absence of hard and strong evidence from placebo controlled trials (not marginally positive ones), I think it is unethical for anyone to be pushing this stuff unless the target individual is at the very last resort i.e. tried abstinence based programs and repeatedly failed. Otherwise an abstinence program should be the recommendation. Abstinence has little in the way of harmful side effects. I'm not entirely at ease with abstinence, but at least I still have my family intact and a good job. I'm expecting things to pick up as it does for most people after they get past the first year or 2 of abstinence. I am also encouraged to hear that many people who have gone several years without alcohol report minimal in the way of preoccupation and craving for it (i.e. they don't report the "white knuckling" as portrayed by the proponents of TSM)

I'm expecting the regulars here to shoot me down, but I just thought people who are considering baclofen, or are not getting the result they hoped should hear stories like mine.

All the best everyone............

There has been a visitor to this site who began by posting a horror story about how he was admitted to hospital after taking baclofen, he flat lined, had to be revived by six doctors, died, went to heaven, was invited to tea by the Jesus, came back to earth.

It was all a hoax perpetrated by someone who was working in the medical field but was not a doctor and felt they wanted to stir things up. They then went on to other mind games pretending to be Bluto etc.

So, caveat emptor with baclofen but also with posts like this. People do the strangest things. Myself, I don't believe a word of the post.

[spacebebe01]

Baclofen nearly destroyed my life

I forgot to say in my last post Golf that I am glad things are working out for you now.

I do however want to say that for me the idea of just abstinence never worked. I was told often enough that after the first year or so it would get better but there was no way I could spend a year or more in the turmoil I was in due to the constant cravings on top of everything else I had to deal with. That was the reason I needed to try medication, because everything else had failed for me.

I am glad that you have posted about your failure with baclofen and think probably many people just stop posting when things dont work for them and as a doctor you will know that what works for some wont work for all.

[Ne/Neva Eva]

Baclofen nearly destroyed my life

Guys, all due respect, but can we give it a rest with the paranoia about who is posting?

That just descends us all into the vortex. Read the words, go back and read all the posts and then make a decision. But suggesting that someone who had a terrible experience with baclofen is here to malign and undermine is so counterproductive, it's enough to just give up on this place.

I had a terrible time with baclofen. The side effects were excruciating.

The side effects are REAL. There isn't a thread on here that doesn't include a long list of them. Not one thread. Not even Lo0p's. To deny them is to deny people the opportunity to get well. The only reason I got through them was because of the support, information and advice I found here.

I have also personally witnessed how difficult it is to take baclofen, particularly without a physician (or with a crazy one who maintains that SEs don't exist and that baclofen has a cure rate of 90%). Because the truth is that we all know that baclofen doesn't work for everyone.

Would I do it all over again? Absolutely. I was hopeless about the fact that I was ever going to be free of addiction to alcohol. I'm not an alcoholic anymore. I call it cured. My therapist prefers the term remission. Whatever. I drink when and where and how I want. Which is very rare, because I don't care about booze. At all. Ever.

Baclofen works. For a lot of people. IF one is able to take enough of it, for long enough, consistently. And that is the exact conclusion that the study came up with. But it's not easy.

Peace.

[COSGringo]

Baclofen nearly destroyed my life

I would love to talk to a doctor that has some experience with hi dose bac and other meds. I am on pain killers and could need surgery at some point.

My experience with the pain killers is less that pleasant. It could be the meds themselves but I wonder if there are interactions.

Dr L would just look on his online service as most of the docs. It would be nice to find one that's been down this road.

'Till then I am titrating down now. Not much choice.

[Otter]

Baclofen nearly destroyed my life

Ne,

It is not about side effects, It is about coming here and saying people are acting unethically which is what GM did. That is exactly what someone else did.

If someone is a doctor or medic and comes here enough to know that the old timers are going to knock him down, he will also know that there is a huge concern here about side effects and no one is acting unethically. In fact, the Prescribing Guide posted here gives clear guidance by doctors in the ethical aspects of prescribing.

Also, anyone coming here purporting to be a doctor and then saying he almost lost his job because he pushed dosages so high, against the advice given here, is either an fool or is playing games. He certainly isn't a very clever doctor (I am sure he isn't one), or an ethical one, as doctors should never self medicate. Did he self prescribe? Did he get baclofen over the internet? Did he get another doctor to prescribe these debilitatingly high doses which nearly ruined his life?

Pull the other one. Come on, wake up and smell the Coffee.

[Otter]

Baclofen nearly destroyed my life

And another thing.

He says people should go on and on with other treatments first, what, risking their lives and putting their families, other road users etc., at risk when there is an effective treatment? I call that type of posting unethical. The French doctors, who are doctors, have now advised that the off-licence use is ethical and should be followed because the double blind trials won't be concluded until 2015.

The UK medical governing bodies have advised me in writing, because I asked them, about this and they said it is ethical to use baclofen off-licence.

Coming here and posting comments that baclofen will "never" work for some people is scare mongering. Saying doctors should wait until the conclusion of double blind trials is "ethically" incorrect and a misrepresentation of the rules of conduct for doctors using off licence medication.

[Hippyman]

Baclofen nearly destroyed my life

Otter;1464513 wrote: And another thing.

He says people should go on and on with other treatments first, what, risking their lives and putting their families, other road users etc., at risk when there is an effective treatment? I call that type of posting unethical. The French doctors, who are doctors, have now advised that the off-licence use is ethical and should be followed because the double blind trials won't be concluded until 2015.

The UK medical governing bodies have advised me in writing, because I asked them, about this and they said it is ethical to use baclofen off-licence.

Coming here and posting comments that baclofen will "never" work for some people is scare mongering. Saying doctors should wait until the conclusion of double blind trials is "ethically" incorrect and a misrepresentation of the rules of conduct for doctors using off licence medication.

I KNOW Baclofen saved my life and anyone who tries to discourage alcoholics from using a med that may help them save their lives??? WHY? well... all I can say is SOMETIMES KARMA WORKS VERY VERY QUICKLY!!!

[Daevid]

Baclofen nearly destroyed my life

Can I say that I have found the symptoms descibed in many baclofen posts resemble those found in antidepressant therapies, both in introducing your sysem to the drug and obversely to coming off the drug. I have endured all of the above and I can assure you that I find baclofen introduction far more benign than introducing mirtazepine. Stick it out, the sleepinesss is not comparable to the stupefying effect of low dose (15mg) mirtazepine, which abates after 7 - 10 days. I think people get far too neurotic about side effects.

[ifulovelife2]

Baclofen nearly destroyed my life

Daevid;1464524 wrote: I think people get far too neurotic about side effects.

YES! I agree. Thank you, Daeveiud!

[Hippyman]

Baclofen nearly destroyed my life

ifulovelife2;1464526 wrote: YES! I agree. Thank you, Daeveiud!

Yes, Thank you Daeveiud! I know I agree with that statement! For me and many others who are like me, the side effect of alcohol is a slow torturous death!!!

[onequart]

Baclofen nearly destroyed my life

You are just posting against the stream here, pal.

This forum is not about science or results. It is a support forum; let them be.

I just read a book called " Inside Rehab", which said that there is no good treatment for alcoholism, and that more than half get better on their own: no rehab, no meds, nothing. More than half get better whatever you do. Go on Bac, or high-dose Bac, or ChaiTea. Guaranteed that many of you will be cured in a year.

I have to laugh (with cynical sadness) that any treatment "will work for some, but not all". Is there a more meaningless claim?

The eye-rolling part about all this is the "GABA-receptor, rat-study, basal-ganglia" crap put out by the idiots here. Yes, every human behavior will involve GABA, dopamine, brain-stem, blah blah blah. The average reader here doesn't seem to understand this.

Then there is the conspiracy theory that all BAC nay-sayers are one person. Geez, I can say that at least one of the regulars here is insane.

The current scientific/medical consensus is that baclofen - low or high-dose - does not work for alcoholism. Period. There are ongoing studies, but they are not encouraging.

Many people can stop/modulate drinking on their own. Unfortunately, there is no evidence that any intervention will do better.

[onequart]

Baclofen nearly destroyed my life

[QUOTE=Otter;1463910]
.....If using this medication might save a life, .....

Show the evidence.


Eating decent Dim Sum on a Sunday lunch might save a life .

[kronkcarr]

Baclofen nearly destroyed my life

And so, onequart, what's the point of your angry messages? Do you think that they'll have any effect on me? Other than confusion and irritation?

If only I could eat dim sum for a Sunday lunch and get sober and experience the life changes I have with baclofen! To each his own,

kronkcarr

[onequart]

Baclofen nearly destroyed my life

kronkcarr;1465741 wrote: And so, onequart, what's the point of your angry messages? Do you think that they'll have any effect on me? Other than confusion and irritation?

If only I could eat dim sum for a Sunday lunch and get sober and experience the life changes I have with baclofen! To each his own,

kronkcarr

I don't expect any messages to affect any of you. It's like talking to the Scientology crowd.

"I failed. Because I didn't believed!"

"I didn't do any of the BAC protocol, but I still succeed!"

"I didn't take BAC at all, but I am sober. But BAC helped me."

Look, obviously BAC has helped you, just like strong green tea can help you. Just stop pretending there is any science behind it.

Here is the Mantra: BAC helps many, but not all. Gaba. Dopamine. Amygdala. Medical Conspiracy.

[Ne/Neva Eva]

Baclofen nearly destroyed my life

kronkcarr;1465741 wrote: And so, onequart, what's the point of your angry messages? Do you think that they'll have any effect on me? Other than confusion and irritation?

Hi Kronk!
That is exactly the point. You'll find the username changes but the message remains the same.

Which is really very sad.

Hope you're well, glad you're with us, and keep in mind what I know you know: Baclofen works.