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Baclofen works in dealing with my alcohol cravings

J

JacksinPA

Bluelighter
Joined
Jan 20, 2018
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354
I'm 74 & have been an alcoholic since age 8. I've been hospitalized 3 times for injuries resulting from alcohol intoxication. I've gone through self-detox 3 times, twice by my own volition & once as a result of being locked up in rehab for 3 1/2 weeks learning to walk again after shattering a femur & breaking my pelvis in a fall from standing height. I've gone the AA route several times but I'm an atheist & I'm not into their mostly spiritual crap. I have accomplished Steps 1 & 2: a desire to give up drinking alcohol & the binding to a Higher Power. In my case, the Higher Power is my wife, who has threatened to leave me if this pattern of self-abuse continues. If that should happen, I would likely drink myself into an early death.

During a recent visit to my PCP, I discussed my problem in dealing with alcohol cravings after having been dry for 3 months. She sent me to see a local psychiatrist who specializes in addiction problems. Today I saw her after having done a lot of homework on drugs that combat alcohol cravings.

I have a prescription for gabapentin, which is an amino acid. When I take 2 grams of it in 500 mg doses over several hours, my cravings go away. I was intrigued when I found the results of a recent study that showed that baclofen, another amino acid, was shown to be effective in treating cravings for alcohol. The psychiatrist agreed with my interest in baclofen & gave me an Rx for a month's supply.

To my amazement, taking 2 10 mg tabs when I got home relieved my cravings completely almost immediately.

The stopping alcohol is very important for me as a result of a recent CT scan of my abdomen. I have developed a fatty pancreas, which is likely alcohol related & on the way towards diabetes. I also have erythema, a reddening of the skin of the palms which is associated with cirrhosis of the liver. While the CT scan was said to rule out cirrhosis, they have another technology called a FibroScan that may be needed to see if I have cirrhosis or not.

While my experience may be unique, that published study on the usefulness of baclofen in treating alcohol cravings shows that it is not. I hope this information helps others who are trying to stay sober.
 
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Good stuff man :) Without wanting to burst your bubble, be aware that baclofen is both addictive and can be abused, and it has a withdrawal syndrome similar to alcohol and benzos (ie. Incredibly brutal).

If you ensure that you use it as prescribed and not to get high, than you've found yourself a real handy maybe even life saving medication.

Good luck- I know how tough cravings can be.
 
swilow said:
Good stuff man :) Without wanting to burst your bubble, be aware that baclofen is both addictive and can be abused, and it has a withdrawal syndrome similar to alcohol and benzos (ie. Incredibly brutal).

If you ensure that you use it as prescribed and not to get high, than you've found yourself a real handy maybe even life saving medication.

Good luck- I know how tough cravings can be.
Click to expand...

I've taken the prescribed 2x10mg dosage 3 times now & have had the same result of relieving the alcohol cravings. I've had no 'high' effects, which is the same result I get after taking the prescribed dosage of 2x100mg of gabapentin. I have no desire to experiment with trying higher dosages of baclofen, though it is interesting that the study results I gave to the psychiatrist stated that they had found no maximum dosage for this drug during treatment studies. Since baclofen is an amino acid like gabapentin, the same transport protein (Large Amino Acid Transfer, or LAT, protein) is likely involved. As with gabapentin, I don't want to jeopardize the amazing positive results I've found by either overloading the LAT or by developing a tolerance. I have not done an extensive literature review on it but I have not found anything relating to it being addictive or being involved with withdrawal syndromes, It works at the 20mg 3x/day for me & that is just fine.

As a chemist with a background in the pharma field, it would be interesting to see what effects analogs of baclofen might have. Substituting other groups for the 4-chloro on the phenyl ring would be very interesting: bromo, iodo, trifluoromethyl, methoxy, etc.
 
If you do a cursory search across bluelight, you'll find a fair bit of stuff on baclofen dependance. It's a GABA B agonist, pretty much every drug in that class can cause withdrawal. It's pretty likely that as a recovering alcoholic, you may find it physiologically easier than a naive user to develop a physical dependance. It's why I cannot take benzos for more than a day or two.

I didn't know baclofen was taken up by the amino acid transporter.

I hope you don't think I'm trying to talk you out of baclofen- just making sure you are aware of the risks so you can avoid having to deal with them. :)
 
I'd rather deal with baclofen than with alcohol. I've been taking the prescribed dose of 60mg/day for 2 says now & have experienced none of the listed side effects. Instead I have gotten rid of alcohol cravings & in general feel much better. So far, so good.

Baclofen is akin to gabapentin in being a substituted gamma-aminbutyric acid. IOW, a GABA analog, a substituted amino acid. Like gabapentin, it would need a transporter protein to get it into your brain via the blood stream. I am amazed at how rapidly it went to work on my symptoms. It barely had time to reach my stomach before the cravings vanished.

I do not intend to experiment with hyperdosing it or messing around as I have done with gabapentin. Since it works, I'm going to leave it alone with the way it is.. I suspect that the folks who have had withdrawal problems with baclofen have abused it before.
 
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As advertised, after several days I did start to experience some annoying side effects: drowsiness, feeling tired & amotivated. So I cut the starting Rx of 60 mg back to 10 mg, taken at bed time. As a muscle relaxant, it helps with getting a good night's sleep. And no alcohol cravings at all. Those side effects (including poor balance) have mostly gone away.

My hypothesis about the anti-craving effect of baclofen is that, as a potent GABA-B agonist, it exerts a partial but non-intoxicating effect, mimicing alcohol but having none of the negative side effects. Your body thinks you're drinking alcohol but with none of the bad downsides. So the cravings for alcohol vanish as your body thinks it already has it. And as a bonus the bulk of it is eliminated via the kidneys in your urine rather than via your liver.
 
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That's awesome that it's working for you mate ?
 
I've begun noticing another possible side effect: waking up after a good night's sleep feeling exhausted. I'm retired but there's no way I could spring out of bed, grab a cup of coffee, a quick shower & toddle off to work. It's almost like I'd been on the bottle the evening before. With a potent GABA-B agonist in my system, I am not surprised. But at least another day passed with no alcohol. I'm ahead of the game. As they say at AA: one day at a time.
 
offcourse it works for alcoholism, that is what it is prescribed for mainly, but i found it also helps quitting smoking and that it can be abused as if it were ghb but it's muscle relaxer properties are a very dangerous side effect when you have abused it much in short time. your whole body might cramp up. and it is also a short coma inducer so stick to low dosages for safety. feeling too dizzy and sweating like a pig isn't exactly fun. I've had it with this stuff. It's a page I'm turning.
 
It doesn't work for alcoholism: it works to remove the physical & psychological cravings associated with quitting dependence on alcohol. Why it works on nicotinic systems I have no idea. But you admit to having abused it, so let that be your lesson.

The thing I learned about baclofen is that there is a general ignorance regarding it in the medical community. I had to do my own research & present the psychiatrist with an abstract of a report that found positive results. Dig a little deeper & you can find as many reports citing negative or inconclusive results. There are a number of known GABA-B agonists that might work as well if not better but baclofen appears to be the only one that is legally available by prescription.

Many recovering alcoholics show up at AA meetings. From personal experience I know the subsequent dropout rate is high. When the pharmaceutical alternative is available at your local pharmacy for $1 for a 6 month supply, I find this disturbing. Big pharma is not making $$$ pushing a cheap, generic drug so baclofen remains hidden from all but those who seek it out.
 
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One side effect listed that I just recognized is 'frequent urination.' This can be somewhat of a pain if you are trying to sleep late in the A.M. I had been taking my 10mg in the late evening. Now I've switched to early morning. Since baclofen is eliminated via the kidneys, it may have a diuretic effect.
 
The final side effect of even 10mg/day of baclofen was losing my balance due to 'muscle tone.' In both cases I fell, the last time on a concrete sidewalk that put a nasty scrape on my elbow & required 2 neighbors to pick me up. I gave it up at that point. Surprisingly, the alcohol cravings have not returned, but I still have a big bottle of this on hand just in case. Bad news drug.
 
I went back to taking baclofen after a month or more - only a single 10mg tab in the morning along with my cholesterol meds (atorvastatin/ezetimbe). No more alcohol cravings but I still find that it produces drowsiness in the afternoon & early evening. No more falling, but I have caught myself being slightly off balance on a couple of occasions.
 
It's been 2.5 months now since the last time I took 10 mg baclofen & the alcohol cravings have not returned. Nor have I felt any withdrawal symptoms. My perspective: if you are trying to get off alcohol, take the smallest amount that works as infrequently as possible. If you abuse baclofen & overdue it, I gather you can expect some nasty after effects.
 
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