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veggie

Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,504
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New Medication Offers Help Against Alcoholism
#7507385 - 10/10/07 10:33 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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New Medication Offers Help Against Alcoholism October 10, 2007 - wcco.com
Researchers have found a new use for an old medication. The drug Topiramate has been sold under the name Topomax for years to treat seizures and migraines. Now scientists have discovered an interesting side effect. It may help put alcoholics on the road to recovery.
In a study funded by the maker of Topomax, researchers recruited hundreds of alcoholics who were still drinking, reports CBS station KOVR-TV in Sacramento, Calif.
Doctors found patients given Topiramate had significantly fewer heavy drinking days. Previous research had shown the drug can assist alcoholics who have stopped drinking and seek to stay sober.
"It's a rather exciting study, very promising," explains Dr. Petros Levounis of Saint Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center.
Petro Levounis says if Topiramate continues to perform well in studies, it could one day be used to help patients give up alcohol and stay off it.
"The patient has less cravings for the actual drug in this case alcohol," says Levounis.
Doctors are not sure how Topomax cuts down on cravings but believe the drug works by satisfying certain addiction centers in the brain, an action that seems to help with more than just alcohol.
Previous studies have suggested Topiramate may help people quit smoking, curb cocaine addiction, and even treat binge eating disorders.
There are already FDA approved medications on the market for alcoholism. If Topiramate is eventually approved for addiction, it could give psychologists like Jim Bott another treatment option for his patients.
"Anything that would work to help a person reduce either the number of days they're going to be drinking or reduces cravings, it makes it less likely that they'll be overwhelmed by those feelings. Yeah, I'm interested," explained Bott.
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Visionary Tools



Registered: 06/23/07
Posts: 7,953
Last seen: 1 year, 7 months
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Re: New Medication Offers Help Against Alcoholism [Re: veggie]
#7507881 - 10/11/07 04:44 AM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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Nevermind Iboga or Salvia. You can't patent a plant, thus no advertisment.
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badchad
Mad Scientist

Registered: 03/02/05
Posts: 13,372
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Re: New Medication Offers Help Against Alcoholism [Re: Visionary Tools]
#7507977 - 10/11/07 07:37 AM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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There is ample incentive to develop medications which help treat "addiction" because money can still be made by setting up a treatment center where people can get help. Ibogaine has some promising work, but not everyone wants to trip balls to get help with an addiction. Further, using it on an outpatient basis would present some abuse problems.
The potential for salvia to be used in addiction treatment seems much less promising.
-------------------- ...the whole experience is (and is as) a profound piece of knowledge. It is an indellible experience; it is forever known. I have known myself in a way I doubt I would have ever occurred except as it did. Smith, P. Bull. Menninger Clinic (1959) 23:20-27; p. 27. ...most subjects find the experience valuable, some find it frightening, and many say that is it uniquely lovely. Osmond, H. Annals, NY Acad Science (1957) 66:418-434; p.436
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2FiNiTe
ConsideratlyKilling Me



Registered: 06/12/06
Posts: 1,635
Loc: New England
Last seen: 7 years, 4 months
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Re: New Medication Offers Help Against Alcoholism [Re: veggie]
#7509500 - 10/11/07 04:04 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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Thats what they said about methadone in the 70's. Need I say more?
-------------------- "Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war that we know about peace, more about killing that we know about living." General Omar N. Bradley
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DadeMurphy
H4x0r

Registered: 01/29/03 
Posts: 908
Last seen: 13 years, 10 months
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Re: New Medication Offers Help Against Alcoholism [Re: badchad]
#7509502 - 10/11/07 04:04 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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A friend of mine was on topiramate for a while (not for alcoholism) and reported extreme memory problems. Things like utterly forgetting where he had parked his car (or even that he had arrived somewhere by car), forgetting what he had done during the day, leaving books and bags behind after studying at school etc. etc. This is a drug with many untoward neurological side effects.
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