Need bac? Educate yourself, then educate a doctor

[Alky]

I am eternally grateful to Evan Picard and Dr. Fred Levin for getting me out of alcoholic hell. I was frightened with Evan's untimely passing that that's where I was headed back to. I had little previous success with my psychiatrist, no success with two other addiction psychiatrists and my GP. Heeding Evan (and other MWOer's) warning that docs don't respond well when you bring in "End of My Addiction," I printed out every case study and clinical trial results I could find under Evan's Consolidated Baclofen Information thread, steeled myself and went to see my psychiatrist.

And you know what, it worked. He said, "let's do it," (verbatim quote). I think it was Bleep (pardon me if I'm wrong), who once questioned everyone's reticence on trying to educate their physician about baclofen for addiction. I for one, am grateful that I grew a pair and took a stand, and flabbergasted that it worked. My psychiatrist even thanked me for educating him about baclofen's use in treating addiction.

Caveat: this would not have happened if I hadn't already been self-medicating with Evan's liquid bac with results, so Evan, wherever you are, thank you, thank you, thank you.

[Cytoskeletor]

Need bac? Educate yourself, then educate a doctor

This worked with the psychiatrist that you had a little previous success with or another one?

Thanks for the advice. I'm going to print out those studies ASAP.

[Alky]

Need bac? Educate yourself, then educate a doctor

Yes, the psychiatrist I had been seeing. In his defense, he did not dismiss baclofen out-of-hand like the two other addiction psychiatrists and my GP, he was just completely ignorant about it's use in addiction treatment. Apparently, I was able to make a compelling enough case to turn him.

[whatever...]

Need bac? Educate yourself, then educate a doctor

Actually my psychiatrist has read Ameisen's book and recommended me to read it while I was swallowing baclofen, but reading the disaster and relapse stories from the past on this forum I've placed: Levin, Ameisen & LoOp into the same (insane) category

[spiritwolf333]

Need bac? Educate yourself, then educate a doctor

Good to hear Alky -You know, I think many of us underestimate our prescribing or potential prescribing doctors. From what I have witnessed in the past, most doctors just want to be able to help -as long as it is not an abnormal risk and unhealthy for the patient. For me, I am the one who has always hesitated asking them for help -I always thought that I knew what they were going to say -so why bother. And you know, I bet a lot of the doctors are glad to learn information regarding baclofen and alcoholism.

[Cytoskeletor]

Need bac? Educate yourself, then educate a doctor

I wonder if anyone has made an effort to let doctors know on a mass scale. Something like a mail or email campaign. Even if one out of a thousand were reached it would be an improvement.

[Xadrian]

Need bac? Educate yourself, then educate a doctor

It will not be long before the results of the trial (75 persons HDB, 75 LDB, 75 placebo) of the University of Amsterdam will be published (last indication was mid 2014).
I think this may change a lot

[whatever...]

Need bac? Educate yourself, then educate a doctor

Xadrian;1613790 wrote: It will not be long before the results of the trial (75 persons HDB, 75 LDB, 75 placebo) of the University of Amsterdam will be published (last indication was mid 2014).
I think this may change a lot

If I was a gambler I'd bet my house that the outcome of the study is going to be somewhat sugar coated as baclofen being useless again

[kronkcarr]

Need bac? Educate yourself, then educate a doctor

Alky,

So good to see you post this. 👏 💛

[Yourfriend6116]

Need bac? Educate yourself, then educate a doctor

Thanks, Alky! I'm also on liquid with unbelievable results thus far. I've printed the case studies from Evan's thread to take to my GP and my psychiatrist. I've followed you thread. Great story. Thanks for sharing!

[neophyte]

Need bac? Educate yourself, then educate a doctor

Alky, ive been meaning to go to a dr with some materials and get a proper prescription. I had a feeling bringing the book would be a bad idea. The book makes the dr think you are buying into some crazy fad. Studies are better.

Can you list which documents specifically you brought?

[Alky]

Need bac? Educate yourself, then educate a doctor

Neo, here you go. Unfortunately the links don't work anymore, so you will have to google the title of each article. Some of the google hits lead to subscription-only academic databases, so you might have to do some digging to find the full text of the trials and case reports, but I found them all. Don't bother with the news articles or the websites. Just stick to the scientific stuff. I didn't bother with the rat study, either.

https://www.mywayout.org/community/f2...ead-38718.html

I find it all depends on the open-mindedness of an individual doctor. My GP denied my request because he found the results of a highly flawed trial at the University of North Carolina Medical School showing baclofen to be no more effective than placebo. Of course this trial lasted only 12 weeks and topped out at 30 mg/day, so of course it was destined to fail. You can find trial results for any drug to show any result you want. I've been on trazodone for sleep difficulties for years, and I've found trials that show traz is great for alcohol withdrawal, and another that shows traz encourages alcohol relapse. So like I said, a doctor can find trial results to suit their personal opinion if they look hard enough.

[Colin]

Need bac? Educate yourself, then educate a doctor

No GP is going to plough through the Consolidated ... looking for convincing arguments. Print off these two and he might look at them.

Suppression of Alcohol Dependence Using Baclofen: A 2-Year Observational Study of 100 Patients

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/59463672/Prescribing-Guide-for-Baclofen-in-the-Treatment-of-Alcoholism-Don.pdf

[Alky]

Need bac? Educate yourself, then educate a doctor

Colin;1614410 wrote: No GP is going to plough through the Consolidated ... looking for convincing arguments.

The links don't even work. What I did and what I was suggesting was googling all the case studies and trial results, printing them, and taking them to a physician.