Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-xxrs7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-29T00:11:27.036Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Long-Term, High-Dose Disulfiram in the Treatment of Alcohol Abuse

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Colin Brewer*
Affiliation:
The Stapleford Centre, 25a Eccleston St, London SW1W 9NP

Abstract

A patient who had experienced most of the standard methods of managing alcohol abuse found that during 11 years of treatment, the most consistently effective intervention has been the taking of disulfiram under family supervision. He has received 600 mg daily almost continuously for over six years without side-effects. Smaller doses do not have an adequate deterrent effect.

British Journal of Psychiatry (1993), 163, 687–689

Type
Brief Reports
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1993 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alcoholics Anonymous (1975) Living Sober. London: Jupiter.Google Scholar
Andersen, M. P. (1992) Lack of bioequivalence between disulfiram formulations, exemplified by a tablet/effervescent tablet study. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 86 (suppl. 369), 3135.Google Scholar
Azrin, N. H., Sissons, R. W., Mayer, S. R., et al (1982) Alcoholism treatment by disulfiram and community reinforcement therapy. Journal of Behaviour Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 13, 105112.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brewer, C. (1984) How effective is the standard dose of disulfiram? A review of the disulfiram-alcohol reaction in practice. British Journal of Psychiatry, 144, 200202.Google Scholar
Brewer, C. (1986) Patterns of compliance and evasion in treatment programmes which include supervised disulfiram. Alcohol and Alcoholism, 21, 385388.Google ScholarPubMed
Brewer, C. (1990) Combining pharmacological antagonists and behavioural psychotherapy in treating addictions: why it is effective but unpopular. British Journal of Psychiatry, 157, 3440.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chick, J., Gough, K., Falkowski, W., et al (1992) Disulfiram treatment of alcoholism. British Journal of Psychiatry, 161, 8489.Google Scholar
Edwards, G., Orford, J., Egert, S., et al (1977) Alcoholism: a controlled trail of “treatment” and “advice”. Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 38, 10041031.Google Scholar
Gitlow, S. E. (1980) Antabuse. In Alcoholism: A Practical Treatment Guide (eds Gitlow, S. E. & Peyser, H. S.), p. 273. New York: Grune and Stratton.Google Scholar
Johansson, B., Angelo, H., Christensen, J., et al (1991) Dose-effect relationship of disulfiram in human volunteers II: A study of the relationship between the disulfiram-alcohol reaction and plasma concentrations of acetaldehyde, diethyldithiocarbamic acid methyl ester and erythrocyte aldehyde dehydrogenase activity. Pharmacology and Toxicology, 68, 166170.Google Scholar
Sereny, G., Sharma, V., Holt, J., et al (1986) Mandatory supervised Antabuse therapy in an out-patient alcoholism program: a pilot study. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 10, 290292.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.