Campral vs Vivitrol
 | Campral |  | Vivitrol |  |
| This medication is used to help alcohol-dependent patients keep from drinking alcohol. It should be used as part of a complete treatment program that includes both counseling and psychological support. Acamprosate is believed to work by restoring the natural balance of chemicals in the brain (neurotransmitters). Before beginning this medication, you should no longer be drinking alcohol. Acamprosate has not been shown to be effective if you are still drinking when you start taking it. | This medication is used to treat alcohol abuse. It is used only in people who have been able to stop drinking for some time before starting treatment with naltrexone. You should not be drinking when you start naltrexone. It can help people drink less alcohol or stop drinking altogether. Naltrexone works in the brain to decrease the desire to drink. It does not work like some other treatments for alcohol abuse (e.g., disulfiram). It will not make you sick when taken with alcohol. This medication is also used to prevent relapse to opioid abuse, after opioid detoxification. It works by blocking the action of opioids. This medication must not be used in people currently taking opiates, including methadone. Doing so can cause sudden withdrawal symptoms. Naltrexone belongs to a class of drugs known as opiate antagonists. It is used as part of a complete treatment program for alcohol or opioid abuse (e.g., counseling, 12-step program, lifestyle changes). | |||
Alternatives
Reviews
| Add Campral review I tried everything to quit drinking wine.I went to AA and stayed sober for 4years, but didn't feel the program replaced alcohol/spirituality.I went to the best rehab facility in Europe for 3months and drank when came out.I despaired until I got Campral.I also got an anti-depressant called Paroxetine.My life has turned around finally.All my talking in AA did not really help me but it is useful to meet others who don't drink. I have been a daily drinker, on & off the wagon.Developed right upper quadrant pain and elevated liver enzymes which scared me. I found it too hard to stop drinking- I come from a long line of type A, successfully functioning alcoholics. Campral has helped alot, but I have developed joint/muscle pain. This is a problem because I was substituting running and lifting again to replace my drinking, and the joint pain makes it difficult to work out. Afraid to stop the Campral- I do not want to drink again- I need to know why I am throwing up on this drug when I do eat...is that normal??? | Add Vivitrol review Before my Gastric Bypass 10 yrs ago. I was sooo big there was no amount of alcohol that could lay me out. I was almost 400 lbs so Booze was never a problem for me, as I was a food addict, not an alcoholic. Since then after losing 150lbs I became a nightly blackout crazed drunk. My addiction unwittingly "transferred" to alcohol, my life became a wasteland as I tried to self-medicate my internal pain. I was on the verge of losing my job and as a last resort got myself to AA. A meeting a day for 3 yrs HELPED but still no total cure. I got myself onto outpatient rehab where the doctor prescribed Vivitrol. It was an absolute Godsend. But the effects started to wane after two glorious weeks of feeling completely NORMAL. I was on Vivitrol alone with personal counseling for 7 months when the doctor thought adding Camporal to help with the times the Vivitol wore off. I now feel I have my life back and under control. We need the AA for learning how to deal with our lives and how we got here from there. We need professional counseling to help heal our inner shame and the need to escape our lives. We need God to heal our souls and the need these wonder drugs for the rocket lift off into sobriety. There is help out there for us if we seek it. Addiction is a horrible disease. I now feel released from my pain and hope you can escape yours too. God bless. If an alcoholic ever wished for a "magic pill" to get rid of drinking, this is 99.9% it (in injection form). I've taken it once a month for 7 months and despite wanting to drink and drinking every hour of every day, I've been sober for 7 months and counting. This medication does two things for me. It takes away the craving & need to drink and, if I DO succumb and start to drink, I get no buzz, no relaxation, no familiar euphoric lift. All I feel is the PHYSICAL response to alcohol, which makes me tired, hot, & uncoordinated, none of which is pleasant. The MENTAL response is similar to drinking water (that burns on the way down) and getting a little confused. In other words, while using Vivitrol, there is no point in drinking because there is no reward, no buzz, no euphoria. And no craving. You find other rewarding things to do. I felt no side effects. I sleep and eat better because I was sober. After 7 months of sobriety I am doing things that I've planned on doing my whole life, but didn't have the time because I lived in the pleasant, but destructive, limbo of inebriation. i feel tired and sleepy, have loss of appetite | |||
