Customer Reviews

The End of My Addiction

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I approached this book with some skepticism. By the end, I felt guilty to have been stuck making the same mistake as the highly-credentialed doctors who refused to consider the merits of Ameisen's research because they'd grown so fixated on traditional treatments. 12 Step programs are a god-send for many but considering their alarming relapse rates, doctors (and readers) remain open minded to new alternatives. Like the author rightly points out, we've come to believe that addiction is a disease but have been treating it the same way for nearly 70 years. For what other illness would that be acceptable? Where else would we tolerate prevailing sentiment that blames the victims?

The premise of the book is that after years of struggling with an addiction that lead to the voluntary closure of his medical practice, Dr. Ameisen begins to look for off-label solutions to his sickness. Believing that AA and rehab were not complete cures - attending 2 meetings a day for 7 years to only temporary success - he hears of a obscure drug called baclofen that has made some progress curing alcoholism in rats. He begins to self-prescribe the drug at very high doses, following the scientific method and recording the results when he can. High does of baclofen led to an almost immediate end of all craving and achieved 9 months of sobriety. An open minded editor of a medical journal agreed to publish his findings and this potential cure has been slowly making it's way through the medical community. Unfortunately, doctors are prey to the same entrenched dilemmas that all businesses are and they have been reluctant to experiment further with his ideas, despite the promising signs. Ameisen, thankfully, has remained sober since.

What is perhaps most striking besides the scientific implications, is that in addition to being a renowned pianist and doctor, Ameisen is a strikingly talented writer. He makes complicated medical topics easily digestible and he speaks of his addiction openly rather than shamefully. A common assumption might be that a work of this nature would be full of rationalizations or cognitive dissonance. That is not the case - it is clear and forthcoming. Nor is it dull or too anecdotal.

Though this book was not the subject of much fanfare at release, it's significance will certainly grow in time. If ongoing studies corroborate Ameisen's results this will stand as a ground breaking work and a turning point in the treatment of addiction.

I really enjoyed this book, and I learned a lot from it about the experience of addiction and what the various treatments for it do and don't do. The author's search for a cure for his alcoholism reads like a scientific detective story, and his personal story is very moving. There are some wrenching experiences here, but it's all told with humility and a sense of humor. In fact, there are a number of very funny scenes that pack a wallop when you stop and think about them.

My own doctor told me that baclofen is a safe medication and that if it works for people the way it worked for the author and the other patients he talks about, it wouldn't be trading one addiction for another, but like the author says, would be like taking medication for any chronic health problem. It is fascinating to learn that baclofen works differently in the brain from the medications that are usually prescribed for addiction, and that it may also be good for anxiety and depression.

In addition to the help that baclofen could provide, I think this book will strike a powerful chord with anyone who's been affected by addiction, whether directly or through someone they know, and also with anyone who has struggled with anxiety or depression. And I bet that any doctors who treat those things and want to understand their patients better will gain a lot of insight from it.

The book is a wonderful read anyway, the drug does exactly what is claimed for it. And for me, it works at 10mg per dose (3xday). No longer get that nervous, anxious feeling mid-afternoon that only a couple or six drinks can calm. I can now make that decision like a non-alcoholic person. The persistent and eventually overwhelming thoughts of how good a drink would feel no longer "take possession" of my mind. I just say nah, not that interested, and continue on with my day.

If you have never been alcoholic, you have no concept what I am talking about. If you are, just go (now, today) and find a doctor, any doctor, willing to help you try it. They will likely have no clue about what it is. If you have to, give them the book and tell them it is of vital importance to you that they help you by getting educated about it.

Start with low dosage and increase till the cravings stop. If you slip up or they start again, increase again. Apparently, there is a wide range of sensitivity. My brain gets fixed with less than 5% of Dr. Ameisen's required dosage. Go figure.

I have been an addictions counselor for 35 years and one tends to get a little cynical about the lack of progress in recovery rates for the various substance dependencies. So when I spied a copy of this book in the library the other day my reaction was, yeah sure, another magic cure for addiction. But something in the book cover drew me to pull it off the shelf to examine and that is when I saw that word again, baclofen. About 2 years ago HBO produced a documentary called Addiction and we had purchased it for our behavioral health department's outpatient substance abuse staff for educating our clients and ourselves as well on the latest scientific findings in addiction treatment. In one of the documentary segments there was mention of clinical trials for a drug called baclofen that I had never heard of before. Since then I had asked co-workers and staff doctors if they had any new information on these studies and it seemed no one knew anything about it.

This book has answered my questions and revealed baclofen to be a potentially powerful weapon in our treatment of addiction. My frustration, which is shared by the author is that because baclofen is an off patent medication there is no profit motive for drug companies to support clinical trials that would demonstrate its efficacy in treating addiction. Hopefully doctors can be encouraged to read the book and go ahead with some off label prescribing that will eventually create bottom up pressure for government agencies to fund the needed studies. I will certainly be encouraging the doctors I work with to read this excellent and courageous book and to act on its conclusions.

The End of My Addiction is a courageous and important book which helps bring addiction treatment out of the dark ages. The 90 percent failure rate of Alcoholics Anonymous is widely understood on an intuitive level by the average citizen, who reads about the revolving door rehabs of celebrities and personally knows motivated, dedicated people, who are unable to overcome alcoholism, using antiquated slide rule era twelve step technology, based on the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, which was written in 1939.

Dr. Ameisen demonstrated what many of us have suspected- alcoholism is a biochemical imbalance, which ceases, along with alcohol craving, when the underlying biochemical imbalance is corrected. Anxiety, often caused by genetically transmitted glutamic acid dehydrogenase deficiency is one of the biochemical causes of alcoholism. Off label generic prescription Baclofen medication effectively treated Dr. Ameisen's alcoholism, when more widely accepted psychiatric and addiction treatments failed.

Baclofen can powerfully lower anxiety, especially in patients with muscle spasms or cramps. Although generally safe and nonaddicting, Florida Detox and Wellness Institute has learned Baclofen can be addictive, and Detoxing from Baclofen is very difficult, since there are essentially no other GABA B receptor agonists. Florida Detox has eliminated alcohol craving with Baclofen and when it works for patients they enthusiastically tell friends about it.

Neurotransmitter profiling could have detected excess glutamate or norepinephrine and deficient GABA neurotransmitter levels, years before Dr. Ameisen, swam against the current and persuaded open minded physicians to prescribe Baclofen off label, for his disabling alcoholism.

Biochemical anxiety is only one cause of alcoholism. Delta 5 desaturase deficiency, lactose intolerance, hidden food allergies, hypoglycemia, progesterone and estradiol deficiency, prefrontal cortex dopamine deficiency, excessive alcohol dehydrogenase enzymes and neurotoxins from mold, Lymes and other biotoxins are some of the other hidden alcoholism causes. Many of these imbalances can be corrected with amino acids, minerals, vitamins and bioidentical hormone replacement, although some require medication.

This book is a fascinating read, which is difficult to put down. Reading this personal account of a brilliant, motivated, dedicated man's successful struggle against this deadly addiction should at least shatter misconceptions, that alcoholism is a choice made by weak willed, emotional weaklings.

Steven Sponaugle

This is one of the most compelling books I've ever read. It is a scientific detective story and an unflinchingly honest personal history. Dr. Ameisen seems to me to be a person who has the courage to go where the evidence takes him, and an individual who has the strength to persevere in the face of the kind of stuck-in-the-accepted-way-of-doing-things opposition that often appears in reaction to a new idea, even when the accepted way of doing things doesn't work very well and there is evidence to support the new idea. The author presents limited but convincing evidence that there is often a psychological condition that precedes addiction and leads to it, and that baclofen, the drug he used, is an effective treatment for both his lifelong anxiety and the alcoholism it led to. I believe the doctors who are quoted on the book jacket are right; this is a book that needs to be read by anyone who suffers from addiction and by those who care about them. I'd also suggest that doctors should read this book. I intend to purchase several copies and donate them where I think they might have an impact.

This book tells a hopeful story for those with loved-ones with alcohol abuse problems. After reading it, we asked our medical clinic to prescribe the drug "baclofen" for our adult son who struggles with alcoholism. While baclofen can't be expected to be a help to all such persons, after several weeks of treatment, it seems to be helping our son more than anything else he has tried (which has included medications, residential treatment and AA).

I read the book and went to my doctor to get a prescription for baclofen. Three days later I was sober. It was effortless and just like the book said, it totally suppressed any and all alcohol cravings. Rarely does the experience match the promise of the book. But in this case it did. It solved my 22-year addiction to alcohol. I've now been sober for 14 months. Thanks Dr. Olivier Ameisen.

This is the inspiring story of a renowned cardiologist who became a seemingly intractable alcoholic on a collision course with death. He saved his own life by discovering a drug that completely curbed his craving for alcohol, and studies have shown that it can help those addicted to other substances too! Every doctor should read this book. It has the power to save lives!

This very interesting page-turner kept my attention all the way through. Ameisen's brave honesty made this book one of my most recommended nonfiction books of the past year. His experiences in rehab, including his New York state enforced 'physicians rehab,' his issues trying to get his self-case research published, and finally his passionate appeal (at the for-profit drug industry's deaf ears) on getting the necessary research funded to put his thesis to the ultimate test all illustrated a true-life story in remarkable detail.