Posted on 12/07/2008 1:39:36 PM PST by BGHater
An eminent French cardiologist has triggered an impassioned debate in the medical world over his claim to have discovered a cure for alcoholism.
Dr Olivier Ameisen, 55, one of France's top heart specialists,says he overcame his own addiction to alcohol by self-administering doses of a muscle-relaxant called baclofen.
He has now written a book about his experience - Le Dernier Verre (The Last Glass) - in which he calls for clinical trials to test his theory that baclofen suppresses the craving for drink.
Widespread media coverage of his book in France has led to a rush of demands from alcoholics for similar treatment,and some doctors have reported unexpected successes after prescribing it.
But many other specialists are sceptical, warning of the dangers of so-called miracle cures.
'Needed alcohol'
Dr Ameisen was associate professor of cardiology at New York's Cornell University, and in 1994 he opened a profitable private practice in Manhattan.
But, stricken by an overwhelming feeling of inadequacy - he says he felt like "an impostor waiting to be unmasked" - he found relief in large quantities of whisky and gin.
"I detested the taste of alcohol. But I needed its effects to exist in society," he says in Le Dernier Verre, which comes out in English next month.
Dr Ameisen says he tried every known remedy to end his dependence. Between 1997 and 1999 he spent a total of nine months confined in clinics - but nothing worked.
Fearing for his own patients, he gave up his practice and returned to Paris. Then, in 2000, he read an article about an American man who was treated with baclofen for muscle spasms and found that it eased his addiction to cocaine.
Further investigation uncovered research showing that the drug worked on rats to cut addiction to alcohol or cocaine.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
Well what is his cure regarding the spiritual and mental part of the disease that accompanies the physical addiction? Addiction often is not just a physical addiction.
Well what is his cure regarding the spiritual and mental part of the disease that accompanies the physical addiction? Addiction often is not just a physical addiction.
“Now I can have a glass and it has no effect......”
cured, eh? LOL
Bunk. There is only one reason people drink large quantities of hard liquor: to get ripped. All other explanations are excuses designed to shift blame to something other than themselves.
Unless the pharmaceutical companies can develop magic pills for every possible vice, a chemical solution is doomed to failure. Personal responsibility doesn't come in a pill.
From Wikipedia:
“Discontinuation of baclofen can be associated with a withdrawal syndrome which resembles benzodiazepine withdrawal and alcohol withdrawal.”
So he trades one addiction for another?
/sarcasm
>> “Now I can have a glass and it has no effect......”
cured, eh? LOL
Spot on. What’s happening is that the addict is then getting ADDICTED to the ‘cure’.
Morphine was a “miracle drug” that cured alcoholism; cocaine was touted as a cure for morphine addiction. It doesn’t appear that Unintended Consequences are taught enough, if at all, in medical school.
Thanks BGHater. I just wish someone would invent a pill people could take to cure their addi- oh, never mind...
;’)
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