We are very discouraged and could use any comments or feedback from people in this group. Here’s the story. I’m the husband of a wonderful woman who has a drinking problem. We live in the U.S. My wife has gone through endless cycles of white-knuckle abstinence followed by binging. She’s tried the usual treatments and techniques to no avail. When we ran across Eskapa’s book, it offered hope. We both read the book and many of the posts on this message board to get familiar with the technique. It makes sense, in a world that makes little sense. We researched Naltrexone, and decided to give it a try. My wife’s doctor will only refer to specialists who do not believe in the Sinclair method. The region we live in does not have any doctors that we can find that support Sinclair method. So, the problem became how to get Naltrexone to try the method on our own. We ended up going direct to Intas Pharma through Allday chemist. The pills arrived and we were excited to try (understatement). Day one she took 50 mg one hour before drinking, and had about 7 drinks. The entire next day she was very sick with extreme nausea and exhaustion and stayed in bed for nearly 24 hours. We had read about "Nalover", and decided to keep trying. After one or two days (I don’t recall) she tried again taking 50 mg Nal followed by usual drinking, and same thing happened, with debilitating side effects. Although very discouraged, she wanted to keep trying. She tried 25 mg, and unfortunately it had same effect. She tried 25 mg a fourth time and same effect. Each time she took the Naltrexone about one hour before drinking, drank 6 to 9 drinks, and the following day became extremely nauseous to the point of debilitation, extremely exhausted and bed ridden for an entire day. She cannot continue with this physical trauma, and has decided to stop. It’s back to white-knuckle abstinence, followed by inevitable binging. Despair is the only word that comes to mind. Here are my questions. Do other people become bed ridden and experience 24 hours of extreme debilitating nausea and exhaustion after taking Naltrexone? If so, what has been the eventual outcome? How likely is it that we have a bad batch of Naltrexone? If so, how can we get a quality batch, when any doctor we go to will not prescribe Naltrexone other than with abstinence? Should we keep trying longer in the hopes her body will eventually become tolerant of Naltrexone, even with the extremely debilitating side effects? Should we come to the conclusion that she cannot take Naltrexone due to extreme reactions? Is there an alternative to Naltrexone? It’s a damn shame that the U.S. seems to ignore the use of Naltrexone using the Sinclair method, and leaves desperate people to go outside the medical community for help. We are grateful for this group of people who open up your lives to share with others your experiences. I sincerely appreciate any comments or feedback.
Wayne

Welcome to the board. I'm sorry to read about your wife's rough start on Nal. I too purchased from AllDayChemist. When I started the Nal, I had no side effects. When I went back on the Nal (after a break) and starting from a different box, I had terrible side effects. Then after a break and restarting on my initial box, I had no side effects. I too wondered whether I had some bad Nal mixed in w/ my order and also was really upset that I could not get Nal from my doctor in the US. To this day, I don't know if I have some bad Nal or not....or if I just hadn't eaten enough before taking the Nal.

Anyway, here are some suggestions:

Start taking pills from another box from your order and have your wife take 12.5 mg for 2-3 days. Make sure she eats something (a small meal beforehand).
If that works okay, then up the dosage to 25 mg for 3 days. Then up to 50 mg.

You could also look at taking baclofen which seems to be more straightforward to get from one's doctor in the US. It can help reduce the cravings for alcohol. There's a book about a cardiologist who cured his alcoholism w/ baclofen, "The End of My Addiction" by Olivier Ameisen". Some people have used both Naltrexone and Baclofen to help reduce their addiction.

There are many people on this board who have had similar reactions to Nal and I'm pretty sure others will chime in on this. It is wonderful that you are supporting your wife and you are going at this as a team effort. She's fortunate to have your support.

I was suggest trying Campral (Acaprosate) it really really helps

I used it last year along with sertraline for seasonal depression and abstained quite easily for 6 months. I stopped taking it and was back drinking within a week, it was incredible. I'm gonna start taking it again because abstaining without it is impossible for me, as you say the binging is inevitable.

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Really sorry to hear how badly it went for you rwife Wayne.
You sound really supportive of your wife, I really admire that. Im sorry I cant help with info re side effects of nal as I can tolerate it fine. My fear is that it might not be working for me because I can tolerate it ok.

A lot of people on here that have bad side effects make sure that they take it on a full stomach - that is so important. And start on a really low dose, she can always build up to 50mg - but she has nothing to loose by starting really, really low dose.

I really hope she can tolerate it decause I remember my excitement at discovering the method. I thought all my birthdays has come together.

Very best of luck
FallingToPeices

When you are ordering Nal online, God only knows what you are getting.

Here is a clue...chew one of the pills. If it tastes like the worst thing you have EVER tasted in your life...then it MIGHT be Nal. I'm in Canada and I have the privilege of being able to have the real thing -- and holy -- it tastes horrifically awful. There are those here who swear by chewing the Nal, thinking that they have a timed-release version...hence chewing it to remove the timed-release element.

Good luck to you. Keep us posted.

Thanks for your excellent suggestions. We'll try another Nal box at smaller doses, on a full stomach, like you suggest. I downloaded Ameilson's book to learn about use of Baclofen. It sounds really hopeful.

Thanks for the suggestion about Campral. We will research this to see if it is useful in our circumstances.

Interesting idea to cut all the way back to 6 mg. That way she can gradually move up as body tolerance allows (hopefuly). Thanks.

Thanks. What you are saying is very confirmatory with what others are saying: begin with really low doses, full stomach. We were so excited when we read Eskapa's book, and hopefully we can some find the working combination of variables to make it work.