Naltrexone vs Vivitrol
 | Naltrexone |  | Vivitrol |  |
| This medication is used to prevent people who have been addicted to certain drugs (opiates) from taking them again. It is used as part of a complete treatment program for drug abuse (e.g., compliance monitoring, counseling, behavioral contract, lifestyle changes). 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 works in the brain to prevent opiate effects (e.g., feelings of well-being, pain relief). It also decreases the desire to take opiates. This medication is also used to treat alcohol abuse. It can help people drink less alcohol or stop drinking altogether. It also decreases the desire to drink alcohol when used with a treatment program that includes counseling, support, and lifestyle changes. | 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 Naltrexone review My main reason for writing this review is to hopefully prevent at least one person from going through the excruciating pain I have over the last 8 days. PLEASE make sure you have a card on you or make sure you tell your dentist or ER doctor that you are on this drug. I had 2 teeth pulled due to an infection in my gums... the pain medication didn't work AT ALL because of the Naltraxone. You would think our medical system might have systems in place for our doctors to know that before surgery but apparently not. Indescribable pain. Other than that, I've been super happy with Naltraxone. It's been a wonder drug for me. Given me my life and myself back. I don't bing anymore. Because there is no point. The drug makes it that way. Though I have noticed it easy to fall back to light drinking on a daily basis. Still have to use other tools to combate this. Not a wonder drug in that sense. At 50, I've been drinking for 35 years and struggling with it for the last 13. AA, rehab, Smart Recovery, Buddhism, addiction therapy--I've tried it all and while all of the above have helped me become a happier person, even after 8 or 9 months sober my brain still lit up when I was around alcohol. Two days after taking Naltrexone I was grocery shopping when I was hungry, tired and agitated--dangerous times--and I was expecting to have to really marshal my tools and willpower to walk out of that Publix without a bottle of wine. Well! Much to my surprise NOTHING HAPPENED when I saw a wine display. The wine aisle was just like every other aisle in the store. I couldn't believe it. I haven't had zero reaction to alcohol since I started drinking. I can now be in room with people drinking and actually forget their is alcohol in the room. With Naltrexone, I am actually FREE of this addiction. Not just sober--FREE. I knew that Naltrexone was supposed to block cravings and block the euphoric feelings of drinking, but I had no idea it would keep my brain from lighting up AT ALL. Like the other people this worked for, if you are struggling, I beg you to give this drug a try. It's been a literal miracle for me. Note: I did have some side effects at the beginning but it's hard to tell if that was Tramadol w/drawal which I was taking for pain and stopped when I started taking the Naltrexone (my physicial should have backed me off the Tramadol first.) In any case, it was worth it. I have drank since I was 17 and became an alcoholic. Not able to quit on my own. Now I'm 44 years old and dr. prescribed this medication and I call it a wonder drug. It worked great for me. After 22 years of drinking and now completely unable to control it once starting and having periods where I can finish two bottles of wine plus a little more if necessary, I decided to try the medicinal route to changing things. Therapy and counselling has helped me resolve childhood issues and made me happier in general but this habit of not being able to drink reasonable amounts and relapsing badly after periodic abstinence periods has made life almost unmanageable. Naltrexone has been licensed in the UK for just over a year now for alcohol treatment. Regular GPs (General Physicians) through the NHS (National Health Service) may not know much about it but should be able to point you to an addiction clinic within the NHS system where an addiction counsellor with the guidance of another GP should be able to prescribe it. I took my first pill yesterday evening. After waiting for an hour, I felt a little calm but wanted to try the Sinclair Method by opening a bottle of wine. I must tell you I haven't drank that slowly in ages and I couldn't get past a glass and a half. It seemed pointless after that. I have had no bad side effects. Just a little tired today. I am going to take this pill along with the Sinclair method and see if I can truly break my alcohol addiction. So far things look as good as other people are indicating. | 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 | |||
