Naltrexone: The £3 miracle pill hailed as ‘Ozempic for drinking’

A £3 tablet has been hailed because the “Ozempic for ingesting” after being praised for serving to folks reduce down their alcohol consumption.

The remedy in query is naltrexone, which is primarily used to handle alcohol use or opioid use dysfunction by decreasing cravings and emotions of euphoria related to substance use dysfunction.

If taken an hour earlier than consuming alcohol, the drug can have a excessive success fee at getting sufferers to drastically cut back how a lot alcohol they devour because it helps struggle cravings.

In 2023, the World Well being Organisation made a landmark public well being resolution to recognise the general public well being burden related to alcohol use issues and now recommends the drugs of acamprosate and naltrexone to assist with administration of ingesting issues.

The organisation states that alcohol consumption results in 3 million international deaths per 12 months, and contributes to poor well being in tens of millions of individuals. It’s estimated that worldwide near 300 million folks dwell with alcohol use issues, together with about 150 million folks with alcohol dependence.

Writing in The Telegraph, journalist Annabel Fenwick Elliott spoke about her personal expertise of receiving a therapy programme that concerned taking naltrexone to cut back her alcohol consumption.

“After I found, first by means of analysis after which from experimenting with it myself, that this tablet works, in such an astoundingly easy approach – like ibuprofen for complications – I used to be baffled as to why it isn’t frequent data,” she wrote.

The journalist in contrast it to the consequences of Ozempic, the burden loss injection and diabetes remedy that may stunt an individual’s urge for food.

“What I’ve discovered is, I imagine, a bit like Ozempic however for individuals who drink an excessive amount of, fairly than those that overeat.”

Writing about her expertise, Fenwick Elliot wrote: “An hour after I first took the tablet, I poured a glass of wine and was astounded by the outcomes. It regarded like wine. It tasted like wine. It provided the identical gentle leisure impact, however the euphoria didn’t kick in. I stored taking one other sip, ready for the chain response to fireplace off; the one which normally takes me to the tip of the bottle, nevertheless it by no means did. I took a bigger gulp, then half an hour later, did one thing I hadn’t performed in so long as I can keep in mind – I tipped the remaining down the sink.”

The journalist says that whereas she was receiving the therapy ended up “turning down” gives of alcoholic drinks when attending social occasions as a result of she “genuinely didn’t really feel like one”.

The tactic of curbing alcohol consumption known as the Sinclair Technique, which makes use of naltrexone as an off-switch for drawback drinkers. The thought is that the drinker retains ingesting whereas additionally taking naltrexone, as developed by Dr David Sinclair, who was an professional in alcohol habit and labored on the Finnish Basis for Alcohol Research.

The drug was first accredited in 1984, however it’s tough for GPs to prescribe within the UK as a result of licensing points surrounding the remedy.

The tactic of therapy isn’t provided by the NHS, however within the UK, it’s accessed by means of a non-public clinic, which additionally gives habit counselling.