An Alternative Treatment
In 2016/2017, 7% of all UK hospital admissions were related to alcohol*.
That’s more than one million people in hospital because of alcohol misuse. The treatments the NHS currently uses to treat alcoholism show ‘low to medium’ efficacy, with few demonstrated benefits to health outcomes. Patients seeking help take drugs with sometimes unpleasant side effects for months. With things as bad as they are, we should be investigating all our options.
Apomorphine, an old and well understood drug, was used to treat alcoholism in the past but has been forgotten. Doctors who used it reported very encouraging results. It eliminated craving, did not have to be taken for long and helped patients stop drinking, for some permanently.
The NHS views Apomorphine as safe for use in humans but to treat Parkinson’s Disease, not addiction; if a successful trial were carried out, it could be used to treat addicted patients immediately. Knowing more about the efficacy of Apormorphine would allow us to compare it to the anti-alcoholism drugs the NHS is prescribing now.
It is time to find out if there is a better, kinder way to treat alcoholism; we should give apomorphine the trial patients deserve.