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For many people, the drug Naltrexone is an instant cure for alcohol cravings. It is available cheap as a 1-pill-per-day generic drug or as an expensive 1-injection-per-month specialty drug. If you or someone you know is an alcoholic, check it out. It is an opioid receptor antagonist. Its effectiveness depends on whether you have a specific expression of an opioid receptor gene. For some people, it works instantly and there is zero craving. For other people, it is less effective or does not work at all. It appears to work for most American Indians, Asians (60-70%), some whites (30%), and...

[SNIP] The 12 steps are so deeply ingrained in the United States that many people, including doctors and therapists, believe attending meetings, earning one’s sobriety chips, and never taking another sip of alcohol is the only way to get better. Hospitals, outpatient clinics, and rehab centers use the 12 steps as the basis for treatment. But although few people seem to realize it, there are alternatives, including prescription drugs and therapies that aim to help patients learn to drink in moderation. Unlike Alcoholics Anonymous, these methods are based on modern science and have been proved, in randomized, controlled studies, to...

Researchers at The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, Hershey, Pennsylvania have discovered the mechanism by which a low dose of the opioid antagonist naltrexone (LDN), an agent used clinically (off-label) to treat cancer and autoimmune diseases, exerts a profound inhibitory effect on cell proliferation. It has been postulated that opioid receptor blockade by LDN provokes a compensatory elevation in endogenous opioids and opioid receptors that can function after LDN is no longer available. Using a novel tissue culture model of LDN action, the mechanism of LDN has been found to target the opioid growth factor (OGF, [Met5]-enkephalin) and OGF...

... "I felt overall pain to the point that even when my children or husband just touched me it hurt."... ..."I am really, really good," Campbell said. "Having said that, I'm still not 100 percent. I'm still not that person I was before." Campbell was one of 10 women with fibromyalgia to take part in a small pilot study at Stanford over a 14-week period to test the new use of a low dose of a drug called naltrexone for the treatment of chronic pain. ..."Even after the study, it just got better and better and better," Campbell said. "I...

A 30 day injection that blocks the appetite to drink, offers alcohol-dependent patients a new and better way to fight their addiction. The FDA has just approved the drug, something psychiatrists here and around the country have been anxiously waiting for. Rick Herschel is a college professor who lost almost everything because of a drinking problem. In fact, he was even stopping at bars before and after rehab, almost thumbing his nose at any attempts to intervene in his addiction. Rick Herschel: "So I systematically had taken everyone who cared for me and pushed them away." But then along came...

WASHINGTON - A once-a-month injection to treat alcoholism won federal approval Thursday, expanding availability of a drug previously sold only in daily pill form. The Food and Drug Administration approved Vivitrol, spokeswoman Laura Alvey said. Cambridge, Mass.-based Alkermes Inc. will make the injectable form of the drug, also known as naltrexone. Cephalon Inc., of Frazer, Pa., will market and sell it. The companies hope monthly injections of the drug, to be administered at a doctor's office, will prove an easier regimen for alcoholics to follow than the daily pill. The drug is to be used in conjunction with counseling or...

This Drug Could Help MS Victims . . . But They Can't Get It Lack of Profit Puts Off Trials By INVESTIGATION By Judith Duffy Health Correspondent SIX months ago, multiple sclerosis sufferer Neil Lucas was finding it increasingly difficult to cope with everyday life. He had problems walking and writing and had little energy. Then the 40-year-old began to take a drug, normally used to treat heroin addiction, which is claimed can alleviate the symptoms of MS. He says he saw an improvement within days. "It's not a cure, but it has helped my wellbeing and my stability, "...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A new pill that aims to keep alcoholics from drinking again after they have quit could hit the shelves by the end of this year after U.S. health officials approved the drug on Thursday. The drug, called Campral, may not work for people who are actively drinking when they start taking the pill or who are abusing other substances, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said in a statement. It was not clear how the pill worked, health officials said, but studies showed more patients who took the drug stayed away from drinking compared to those who...