First the disclaimer: I was a relatively light (40 units/wk) drinker and a VERY early responder. I have adopted new habits successfully and consider myself cured (totally in control). It's early, I know, but I'm good. My social life is nil so I don't have the temptations problematic to a lot of you. I easily and painlessly manage drinking to usually 1 beer an evening avg. Sometimes o, sometimes 2. With NAL.
Now the experiment part. I have decreased my maintenance dose of NAL to 6mg. I take it before evening meal and drink my daily beer an hour later. Working quite as advertised FOR ME at that dosage. Side benefit I don't seem to overeat as often. I had been diagnosed with diabetes and some of my numbers (glucose, hemo A1b, triglycerides, cholesterol, etc) were off the chart. My latest numbers are all well in target range or normal. This with mainly alcohol reduction and diet.
I only relate my experience here for those well in control of their addiction and interested in the Low Dose Nal thing.

Steve

You are a braver soul than I Steven - if Nal had worked for me (and it will - just not cured yet), I would be so scared of going back to where I was that there is no way I would play with the dosage ! Liken it to feeding a begging dog at the food table - if you sometimes feed it, he will learn that it is worth going on begging ..... please do not play with it if it has worked for you .....

Hugs, Maggie

Here is a thing to keep in mind:

Say you get to the point where you are no longer drinking, so you stop taking your NAL. Some time goes by and an occasion arises where you might drink. So you take your NAL like the good patient you are. But now you are no longer used to the NAL, and because you have been successful in abstaining, -not quite as dedicated/committed as you once were. For a lot of us, a sudden dose of 50mgs of NAL in this situation will not be fun (side effects). You might be an unhappy camper.

The problem is the next time this situation comes up you remember what happened last time, and are reluctant to take your NAL. You'd rather just not drink. Perfectly understandable. But you might drink anyway, as we both know. Bad.

Low-dose NAL is how to avoid this situation. Once you are off the NAL, take just a qtr pill (125mg) if you think you might drink. This works great for me. Maybe 6mg would too, but one can only split a pill so many ways, and I do not even notice the 12.5mg. But it works completely.

This is only after you have gained complete control using the 50mg. Call it a maintenance dose.

Only for advanced users.

I agree. I keep a tiny pill vial with 4 tablet quarters in it on my keychain. Besides being there should I need it, it serves as a talisman of sorts. A reminder of where I've been and the path I've chosen.
"Do or do not. There is no 'try'" (Yoda)
Steve.

I agree totally.

12.5 mg works fine, with minimal or no side effects, and doesn't last nearly as long as the 50 mg dose.

The vivitrol shot is only 380mgs PER MONTH, extended release. Do the math. For those who cannot take the full dosage, my advice is to do your homework, read up on naltrexone, google Dr. Bihari to get the early research, but DON"T give up.

Also, there are ways to low dose naltrexone beyond splitting the pill.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOekLFIvR7I

And for those who feel they may want to address their GABA receptors, here is a good read:

https://bsclarified.wordpress.com/2012/ ... lcoholism/

MASON !!! HI!!
(Mason really started me on my journey and I'm quite grateful for the research she has shared with me.)

Mason, you may have found the other half of the solution in your GABA research! The NAL treatment was all I needed but it is apparent to me there are a LOT of people who could use more help. Very interesting and hopeful article. Any human studies yet? Will resume googling.

Steve

FWIW I just started TSM about 2 weeks ago now. I held off starting it for a while because I was scared of side affects among other things so I decided that I would just experiment with 1/4 tab. So that's 12.5mg. The first night I took it I went from an average of 13 drinks per night to two. next day 4, then 2, then 3 and so on. I've not had 2 drinks in one nights sitting since I was 16 years old, that was over 20 years ago. One quarter tab has completely squashed my desire to 'chase' the first drink, that has been my problem all along and I've always known that.

Anyway I'm sure it's different for any given person but for me the results were immediate at the smaller dose. I really just intended to ween my way up to taking a full 50mg tablet but I'll probably just stick to quarters or halfs at the most.

The research I have done suggests the higher dosage is mostly to extend the half life/ time of coverage. If drinking time is extended, a booster may be called for.
Ocean, congrats on being an early responder. I too feel like that first drink endorphin hit was my big thing and the NAL was very effective against that. The rest was easy.

Yes. There are human studies. If I run into them again, I will add them to the thread. I will say that LDN has gotten my cravings under control and I do not have the obsession with alcohol like before, but I do understand gabergenics, the GABA rebound and I am going to work with my GABA receptors as well.

Yes, my problem was endorphins. Lack of endorphins. So, instead of witholding endorphins, I flooded the system with endorphins via low does naltrexone. ( Dr. Bihardi)

But then again, back to the GABA...still working on that and am now in the process of adding DHM as a supplement.

For those interested in GABA, if you have the rebound GABA, then you have anxiety...probably not the most scientific way of explaining...

Everybody just needs to do their homework.