I first read this thread last night but I wanted to weigh in with a full night's sleep in my system. I also went to Amazon to check out the reviews on the Eskapa book.
I think most of you on this thread have made valid, reasonable points. Yes, 09.1, it was a shitty review and I'm glad that you took it down. Almost all of us have done things when we were drunk that we sorely regret, so no hard feelings against you for it and if someone can't accept your apology, screw them. You are welcome here. If this a site where people will be ostracized for voicing an unpopular opinion about anything, we may as well partner up with one of those other forums (no need to mention names). We have some sanctimonious"preachers" here who often like to tsk tsk others, and I think it's harmful to TSM if this site can't tolerate all perspectives and be a completely open forum.

Nutella, thank you for being a voice of reason. I hate dogma! No one should be telling anyone else how their recovery should go. Anyone trashing the data presented in the Eskapa book hasn't taken the time to read through the posts on this site. And frankly I don't put a ton of faith in even the the most stringently conducted medical research. Just because statistical significance is found under the most rigorous conditions doesn't necessarily guarantee me that a treatment or method will work for me. I compare it to Lance Armstrong being told he had a 10% survival chance after being diagnosed with cancer. If you were told that would you think "Oh my goodness, there's a 90% chance I could die!" and curl up in bed and do so? Even a 1% chance is still a chance, and most of us have an innate survival instinct that urges us to keep fighting for life. We are trying TSM because we aren't ready to give up the fight against this powerful addiction.

TSM may work for you, just as AA works for some, rehab for some, and for others they make a personal decision to stop drinking and just do that without any formal pursuit of treatment. If someone told me AA had a 99% "cure" rate it wouldn't make me view it any differently, because all I really care about is that it didn't work for me--knowing that it doesn't work for most alcoholics doesn't somehow validate my experience to any greater degree. Also, we are all defining cured according to our personal parameters. If I drank 50 units a week for the rest of my days it would still be a 60% reduction in what I had been drinking prior to TSM--to me that represents major harm reduction.

09.1 this is not meant to be a personal attack on you, but I do find several of your statements to be contradictory and spurious. If you want to and can stop drinking on your own, then you don't need TSM (straight from the mouth of Dr. Sinclair). 'Nuff said. And I don't buy the "dangerous" claim of hordes of people tossing their sobriety to the wind after hearing about TSM because it commands them to drink. Give me a f-ing break. AA (and this site) is replete with tales of months, years of sobriety broken by a weekend/month-long/years-long bender. This is a tragic disease and no one should try to force their own experiences on anyone else (especially those new to the site or just exploring what TSM is about) as some sort of a guideline for what to expect will happen. For example, many of us have shared experiences of having a spike in units the 5th or 6th week. Not everyone has experienced that spike on TSM, and while it was comforting to know that what was personall distressing to me was perhaps not an anomaly, it also doesn't mean those TSMers who didn't experience a spike in numbers at that time aren't "doing it right." One credo of TSM is to expect the unexpected. I think that's a major strength of this site because we come together here with no ulterior motives other than to share experiences and be supportive.
Finally, I found your advice in the original review on medical professionals personally laughable. I live in a major metropolitan US city with several large medical research hospitals and research centers on addiction. My current doctor pioneered studies on TSM years ago, and is a supporter but still prescribes it in the county rehab program he runs to be used in conjunction with abstinence (state law & insurance company requirements). I came to him completely educated, carrying the Eskapa book and he seemed so relieved. My primary care physician is top notch ivy league doctor and she knew nothing about NAL and refused to prescribe it to me even after I brought her articles and told her I was drinking 3 bottles of wine a day, every day, and had been for some time. I don't fault her, I know it's the system but we have to acknowledge the almost complete disconnect between the medical community and TSM. Even the Project COMBINE studies prescribed Naltrexone incorrectly (with abstinence), which no doubt led to some of the mixed outcomes. Scientific results cannot be taken at face value and the medical community, at least in the U.S., has a LOT of catching up to do when it comes to understanding TSM. I would never let their ignorance stop me from pursuing my best chance for a cure.