I'm sorry but a lot of the recommendations here are shit. First of all, three bottles of wine a day is serious. He's obviously spiraling downward, and this could get worse quickly, endangering not only his health in the long run, but his immediate functioning and livelihood. Throwing recommendations, based on lose hypotheses you read somewhere is a poor idea and may exacerbate the problem.
Magnesium Glycinate? Please, that will do nothing for withdrawal or his desire to consume alcohol. Just because it calms your girlfriend, doesn't mean you can extrapolate it as a treatment for this very serious disorder.
Phenibut? Yes, let's get him dependent on another seriously addictive substance. Sure, it can help. But it's a very serious risk for someone who is already dependent on one substance.
The fact of the matter is, is that there don't appear to be any studies that convincingly show that there are any OTC studies that reliably treat alcoholism. If anyone would like to show me otherwise, I'd love to be proven wrong. I'm not talking 1 or 3 studies however, but a bulk of literature from a diverse range of journals with high impact factors.
Although depression and alcoholism are linked, correlation doesn't imply causation, and you guys should know this. Sure, he could be self-medicating his depression with alcohol. Or, he could have found alcohol, got addicted, and then fell into depression, who knows. Regardless, there are no studies I am aware of that imply that anti-depressants are in any way, shape, or form helpful for the treatment of alcoholism.
Now, OP, first thing’s first. Are you seeking help from a professional? With that level of drinking, you should be under the guidance of a professional instead of asking dipshits like us on the internet of what to do. If you aren't please, seek one, regardless if my or anyone else's advice is helpful. The advantage of seeking one now, before things get worse, is that you have the time to find one you like. If you try to find one after a binge that leads to an OD, or worse, delirious tremens (please like this up if you don’t know what it is), you’re stuck with who you get.
There aren't that many drugs that treat alcoholism. Let's look at the 3 + 1 standard drugs used to treat alcoholism these days:
Naltexone: This is the mainstay of the treatment of alcoholism. It's a mu opioid receptor antagonist, or more commonly known as an opiate blocker. Most people don't know that a lot of the pleasure of alcohol is mediated through endorphin release. So they give you Naltrexone at 50mg per day (the same as an opiate user), which works for 24 hours and blocks most of the effects of alcohol. It unfortunately, does nothing to block the cravings for alcohol, it just blocks the pleasurable effects. This results in a lot of discontinuation. Sucks if you get injured too, no endorphins to back you up.
Acamprosate: The other major drug used to treat alcoholism. Its pharmacology is poorly understood, though it seems to work through the GABA system and NMDA receptors. Unlike Naltrexone, Acamprosate does seem to somewhat reduce the urge to drink. It's not a drastic effect, but combined with treatment, it is noticeable enough to be prescribed. It also reduces the symptoms of alcohol abstinence, like nausea and insomnia, making not drinking easier.
Disulfiram: A very good medication if taken consistently, but for obvious reasons, it's not taken consistently. Discovered in the 1920s, it simply makes you throw up if you drink alcohol. If you've ever vomited after eating something, you know the negative association that vomiting can create with that food. It works by inhibiting the enzyme acetaldehyde dehydrogenase. Ethanol is first converted to acetaldehyde by alcohol dehydrogenase. If acetaldehyde is not further converted to acetic acid (a natural anaerobic product of the krebs cycle) by acetaldehyde dehydrogenase, all kinds of fuckery can happen (a large population of Asians are genetically deficient in acetaldehyde dehydrogenase, and that's why the get all red and can't take much alcohol) anyway, let me digress. Most alcoholics stop taking this, cause, duh.
Topamax: Only recently discovered to be effective in treating alcoholism, it seems to treat the underlying cravings and reduce the urge to drink alcohol. It can have a fair amount of side-effects, however.
These are the four drugs a professional will generally administer in the treatment of alcoholism. Unfortunately, for some reason, the most effective treatment seems to have gone under the radar, and that’s that of Baclofen:
--http://docdro.id/PSegKjp (from the Lancet w/ and impact factor of a whopping 44)
--http://docdro.id/ne01v6g
--http://docdro.id/oHRwzJQ
It really does seem to have an efficacy that surpasses other treatments for alcoholism. Why it’s not far more well known in the United States is beyond me. I mean, I understand there is no financial incentive to drive forward that information, but one would think that with the desperation that alcoholism produces, word of mouth would catch up. It is well known in France, however. Let me share my own personal story with Baclofen.
Unfortunately for me, I have genes passed down to me for alcoholism from both sides of my family. Severe enough where members of each side have died from it. Of course, I was warned from an early age to be extremely careful. I was in a bad place a couple years, after a breakdown of sorts, and alcohol was one of my major coping mechanisms. And it certainly wasn’t in a healthy way. I would often have a handle a week. I can’t be sure, but it’s possible that that amount would sometimes crawl up to two handles, depending in how bad of shape I was. Anyway, at one point, I was prescribed Baclofen for my neuropathy. Over the next two months I made a seemed to spontaneously make conscious effort to want to save money by not purchasing so much alcohol at CVS. Gee, I thought to myself, I’m being pretty smart. I’m saving quite a bit of money here. It took me 2-3 months to put 2 and 2 together to realize that the Baclofen was obliterating my alcohol cravings, and I simply no longer desired to purchase it. In that span of time I had gone from binge drinking daily to drinking once per week. And that wasn’t even my intention. Remember, after all, the Baclofen was for neuropathy. It totally snuck up on me.
The ‘neuropathy’ turned out to be something else that mimicked it quite convincingly. However, I am staying on the Baclofen, perhaps for the rest of my life. That downward spiral of drinking is nothing to take lightly, and I very much appreciate being able to stop after 1-2 drinks.
Anyway, OP, I hope this helped. I greatly respect your situation and the difficulty it presents. I recommend you get a professional on your side, educate yourself about Baclofen, and if need be (very likely), educate the doctor about Baclofen. Best of luck.
Edited by OneScrewLoose, 10 October 2016 - 04:51 AM.
LongeCity
