BigG
Ex-Bluelighter
Has anyone ever heard of Apomorphine?
Maybe not, (I had never heard about it ether). I came across it while doing some research on another topic.
I was reading an online text of William Burroughs classic book "Naked Lunch"
http://www.hudsoncress.net/hudsoncr...ature/Burroughs, William S. - Naked Lunch.pdf
When I came across it. I will quote a short part below:-
"The doctor explained to me that apomorphine acts on the back brain to regulate the metabolism and normalize the blood stream in such a way that the enzyme system of addiction is destroyed over a period of four or five days. Once the back brain is regulated apomorphine can be discontinued and only used in case of relapse. (No one would take apomorphine for kicks. Not one case of addiction to apomorphine has ever been recorded.) I agreed to undergo treatment and entered a nursing home. For the first twenty-four hours I was literally insane and paranoid as many addicts aer in severe withdrawal. This delirium was dispersed by twenty-four hours of intensive apomorphine treatment. The doctor showed me the chart. I had received minute amounts of morphine that could not possibly account for my lack of the more severe withdrawal symptoms such as leg and stomach cramps, fever and my own special symptom, The Cold Burn, like vast hives covering the body and rubbed with menthol. Every addict has his own special symptom that cracks all control. There was a missing factor in the withdrawal equation – that factor could only be apomorphine."
Admittedly this book was written in the last 1950s when much less was known about addiction It may have been looked at further and shown to be ineffective.....I really don't know.
From wikipedia -
"Apomorphine was used with some notable success as a treatment for alcohol and morphine addiction. Its chief practitioner in the 1950s was John Yerbury Dent 1888-1962 who, early on in his research, mistakenly believed that it was the emetic properties of apomorphine which were efficacious. Subsequently however he realised that it had deeper impact than mere aversion. It is now hypothesised that it is a neurobiological rebooter of the dopaminergic system and as such rewrites the "reward pathway"
Another study abstract from the British Journal of Addiction to Alcohol & Other Drugs titled "The Use of Apomorphine in the Treatment of Alcoholism and other Addictions: Results of a General Practitioner":-
"Positive results of apomorphine treatment of alcoholics is reported in the literature; results with opiate addicts or multiple drug abusers also seem encouraging.
Two kinds of treatment applied in the author's study are described. The fast consists of injections of apomorphine in emetic doses given subcutaneously three times a day (“high-dose treatment schedule”). The second consists of low subnauseal doses injected continuously every two hours (“fractional treatment”).
123 addicted patients (55 alcoholics, 59 opiate addicts or multiple drug abusers, 9 patients dependent on other psychotropic drugs) were treated with apomorphine. 80 patients (65 per cent) stayed drug free, 50 (41 per cent) were found to stay drug free longer than six months. Treatment was more successful with alcoholics and patients dependent on other psychotropic drugs than with opiate addicts and multiple drug abusers. It is too early to arrive at a definite evaluation of apomorphine treatment. However, results of our study suggest further systematic research on apomorphine in the treatment of addictions."
I am going to do some research on this and look deeper into it. I would appreciate any comments from any other member who may know something (anything) about this drug/line of treatment
Maybe not, (I had never heard about it ether). I came across it while doing some research on another topic.
I was reading an online text of William Burroughs classic book "Naked Lunch"
http://www.hudsoncress.net/hudsoncr...ature/Burroughs, William S. - Naked Lunch.pdf
When I came across it. I will quote a short part below:-
"The doctor explained to me that apomorphine acts on the back brain to regulate the metabolism and normalize the blood stream in such a way that the enzyme system of addiction is destroyed over a period of four or five days. Once the back brain is regulated apomorphine can be discontinued and only used in case of relapse. (No one would take apomorphine for kicks. Not one case of addiction to apomorphine has ever been recorded.) I agreed to undergo treatment and entered a nursing home. For the first twenty-four hours I was literally insane and paranoid as many addicts aer in severe withdrawal. This delirium was dispersed by twenty-four hours of intensive apomorphine treatment. The doctor showed me the chart. I had received minute amounts of morphine that could not possibly account for my lack of the more severe withdrawal symptoms such as leg and stomach cramps, fever and my own special symptom, The Cold Burn, like vast hives covering the body and rubbed with menthol. Every addict has his own special symptom that cracks all control. There was a missing factor in the withdrawal equation – that factor could only be apomorphine."
Admittedly this book was written in the last 1950s when much less was known about addiction It may have been looked at further and shown to be ineffective.....I really don't know.
From wikipedia -
"Apomorphine was used with some notable success as a treatment for alcohol and morphine addiction. Its chief practitioner in the 1950s was John Yerbury Dent 1888-1962 who, early on in his research, mistakenly believed that it was the emetic properties of apomorphine which were efficacious. Subsequently however he realised that it had deeper impact than mere aversion. It is now hypothesised that it is a neurobiological rebooter of the dopaminergic system and as such rewrites the "reward pathway"
Another study abstract from the British Journal of Addiction to Alcohol & Other Drugs titled "The Use of Apomorphine in the Treatment of Alcoholism and other Addictions: Results of a General Practitioner":-
"Positive results of apomorphine treatment of alcoholics is reported in the literature; results with opiate addicts or multiple drug abusers also seem encouraging.
Two kinds of treatment applied in the author's study are described. The fast consists of injections of apomorphine in emetic doses given subcutaneously three times a day (“high-dose treatment schedule”). The second consists of low subnauseal doses injected continuously every two hours (“fractional treatment”).
123 addicted patients (55 alcoholics, 59 opiate addicts or multiple drug abusers, 9 patients dependent on other psychotropic drugs) were treated with apomorphine. 80 patients (65 per cent) stayed drug free, 50 (41 per cent) were found to stay drug free longer than six months. Treatment was more successful with alcoholics and patients dependent on other psychotropic drugs than with opiate addicts and multiple drug abusers. It is too early to arrive at a definite evaluation of apomorphine treatment. However, results of our study suggest further systematic research on apomorphine in the treatment of addictions."
I am going to do some research on this and look deeper into it. I would appreciate any comments from any other member who may know something (anything) about this drug/line of treatment
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