Drug Treatment Program for Excessive Alcohol Intake Expands in Manitoba

Alavida is an outpatient program already offered in four provinces and is based in part on naltrexone, a prescription drug that blocks endorphins.

People take the pills an hour before drinking. Studies have shown that the drug makes alcohol less rewarding over time. For example, a 120-person study published in the Canadian Journal of Clinical Pharmacology found that 86% of patients receiving naltrexone consumed less alcohol after 12 weeks and reported "a significant decrease in the need for alcohol. at the 12th week "

. "As long as you only drink naltrexone on board, your brain says," Damn it, why am I bothering? " "Says Dr. Diane Rothon, medical director of Alavida.

In addition to drugs, those who sign up for Alavida's $ 6,500 program, which will last two years, videoconference sessions and a progress tracking app.

The drug is already available without the Alavida program, but Winnipeg pharmacist Michael Watts says that there has been only one prescription. his pharmacy in seven years. "It's not common," he says. It also warns that the drug can be hard on the liver.

Rothon says that for some patients the program is not about quitting for good.

"Some people never wanted that in the first place," she said. "They want to be able to drink safely, drink socially, drink from time to time, and have control."

But Ian Rabb, an addiction specialist at the Aurora Recovery Center in Gimli, Manitoba, prefers an approach that is "safe." Abstinence combined with a therapy what he considers as the root causes of alcohol dependence.

"They do not become alcoholics because they like alcohol," he says. "They become alcoholics because of (childhood trauma)."

With a report by Michelle Gerwing of CTV Winnipeg