Baclofen has had some popularity as a possible treatment for drug and alcohol addiction because of how it changes the chemical processes that fuel substance abuse. Doctors who prescribe Baclofen also believe that it might be a better choice. They often live in terrible social circumstances and this itself drives drug use. There’s no “polishing of turds” here: no filtering of information to conceal problems or make a treatment sound more effective than it is, all too common in pharmaceutical company promotions.Clearly internet forums don’t replace clinical trials but they provide another source of information on how a medication performs in “the real world” as well as the patient experience of a medication. These results have been found repeatedly and consistently – naltrexone and acamprosate are reliably ineffective for most patients (In contrast, the randomised controlled trials of baclofen in heavy daily drinkers show 42-49% improvement over placebo (Another major difference between baclofen and other alcohol addiction treatments is in how it came into widespread use. User Reviews for Baclofen to treat Alcohol Withdrawal. In fact 95% of the drug using soldiers stopped using addictive drugs without help once they left the stressful environment of combat. This means an average of 9 patients must be treated for one of them to find benefit over the placebo effect of the medication. Baclofen is a prescription drug used for spasms and pain in muscles. If the army had tried to treat these soldiers’ addictions in the combat zone, it is highly unlikely that anywhere close to 95% would stop because they were using the drugs to cope with the horrors of war. Participants in the baclofen group showed significant decreases in their cocaine use while the placebo group showed little to no change. Other patients will stop their alcohol intake quickly but they still rarely go into withdrawal because baclofen itself is very effective for alcohol withdrawal as discussed below.Specialist Drug and Alcohol services are required for some alcohol addicted patients, especially those who require detox or rehabilitation services. Basic Information About Baclofen; Bare Bones Baclofen Protocol – an easy summary; Practical Protocol for Prescribing Baclofen in Alcohol Addiction; Anxiety and Alcoholism – the missing piece of the puzzle: How baclofen is different from other alcohol addiction treatments; Baclofen assisted alcohol withdrawal – the alternative way to start They know their patients, are aware of the co-existing health and social issues and can provide care of underlying anxiety as well as providing support to the patient and family over the short and long term.My observation of our specialist system is that alcoholics with underlying anxiety tend to “slip through the cracks”. Choice replaces compulsion. It’s quite unexpected that one medication can reduce cravings in both alcohol and stimulant addiction because they are very different types of drugs both chemically and in the desired effect- simplistically the stimulants are “uppers” and alcohol is a “downer”.What they have in common is that both types of drug stimulate the release of dopamine, the “pleasure” hormone of the brain. After the withdrawal period, the patient can continue on baclofen with a rapid titration upwards over the following weeks, at the same rate as for patients who have reached the 10mg three times daily dose by the Ameisen regime.Baclofen is cheap. There was controversy in France about ideas being spread in the popular press that baclofen might be a general remedy for obesity but this is far from true. The good, the bad and the ugly are all laid bare. Nevertheless, baclofen has potential in the treatment of stimulant addiction especially given that there aren’t any other anti-craving medications available and the recognised treatment, cognitive behavioural therapy, CBT, has a low success rate. Baclofen doesn’t appear to assist with withdrawal symptoms from cannabis.There is no information about baclofen’s effect on “synthetic cannabis” addiction.This is an interesting one. Simply start on 10mg three times daily. There is some evidence of an effect of baclofen on binge eating in a randomised control trial (link).The effect on baclofen is likely to be confined to compulsive eaters who have the classic brain changes of addiction. This markedly reduces the severity and duration of withdrawal. At the time there was a major concern that large numbers of drug addicted servicemen would return to the US and overwhelm addiction services by their requests for treatment. This gives alcohol addicted patients confidence that the baclofen can help them and encourages them to stick with the titrating of the baclofen dose up until they get to the needed dose to suppress their cravings.This makes baclofen ideal for outpatient detoxification regimes in suitable patients, because the withdrawal is milder, shorter and safer with a lower dose of diazepam required. It’s been made possible by the information revolution– internet forums and social media collect and then diffuse information from patients about treatments which are not being promoted by pharmaceutical companies.