Treating Alcohol Addiction: Can a Pill Replace Abstinence?

From TIME Magazine By Maia Szalavitz Tuesday, Jul. 28, 2009

Chris Collins / Corbis

• They call it "the switch." Alcoholics who take an anticraving medication called baclofen say the drug allows them to resist the most powerful triggers of relapse: former drinking buddies, a favorite bar, the sight of alcohol or even the most potent drinking cue of all, having a single drink.

Related

Stories

• Can One Drug Cure Addiction to Another?
• Battling Addiction: Are 12 Steps Too Many?
• Can Amphetamines Help Cure Cocaine Addiction?

More Related

• Can Amphetamines Help Cure Cocaine Addiction?
• A Retina Drug Prompts Big Hopes and Potentially Big Costs
• Battling Addiction: Are 12 Steps Too Many?

Bob, 62, a business owner in the Midwest, who asked not to be identified by his real name, experienced his switch at a dinner party two years ago. Bob had battled alcohol dependency for several decades, regularly drinking at least 35 beers a week. Normally he would have downed several glasses of wine before dinner, he says, but that night, after taking baclofen for two weeks, he found himself sipping soda water instead, engrossed in conversation. "I realized I wasn't having that nagging feeling in my head, 'I should really get a drink,'" says Bob. "It never appeared during the dinner either so that was the eureka moment." He continues to take baclofen and now drinks about two or three times per week, no more than a beer or two at a time. (Read about the many faces of addiction.)/.../