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Medications to Help Kick the Smoking Habit Nicotine is one of the most addicting drugs of abuse, and one of the hardest to kick for good. According to Charles O'Brien, M.D., Ph.D., Director of the Addictions Research Center at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center in Philadelphia, some 70 to 80 percent of people formally treated for nicotine dependence resume smoking by the end of a year. However, aids like the nicotine patch and gum have been developed to help some of those who want to quit. Most recently, an antidepressant called buproprion has also been shown to help people quit smoking. It's been on the market for this use since the summer of 1997 (under the brand name Zyban) and is the first FDA-approved non-nicotine product designed to help smokers quit. Researchers think it works by helping to normalize neurotransmitter levels in the brain.
Medications to Help Treat Alcoholism Some recovering alcoholics take a medication called disulfiram, or Antabuse, which supports abstinence by making them very ill if they drink alcohol. Another medication, called naltrexone, was developed to prevent relapse to opiates such as heroin by blocking the receptors for those drugs in the brain. But heroin addicts tend to resist taking it because it can cause dysphoria, or low mood, in those patients and does not eliminate craving for heroin. Naltrexone has also shown more promise, however, in the treatment of alcoholism, by reducing cravings for alcohol and blocking some of the drug's "high." It lowers relapse rates in recovering alcoholics and tends to stem minor relapses from becoming full-blown binges. University of Pennsylvania researcher A. Thomas McLellan, Ph.D., estimates that adding naltrexone to psychosocial treatments for alcoholism produces at least 30 percent more benefit than treatments without it.
Psychiatric Medications Because many addicted people also suffer from co-existing psychiatric problems, such as depression or anxiety, that may interfere with recovery, treating those conditions can be very valuable in helping them maintain sobriety, experts say. Researchers are examining questions such as whether giving antidepressants such as Prozac increases sobriety rates. Some studies have been promising. One recovering alcoholic, who asked not to be named, comments, "I really wanted to quit drinking -- I checked myself in for three weeks of inpatient treatment and then joined AA -- but I couldn't manage a lasting sobriety until I got my chronic depression and attention-deficit disorder diagnosed and appropriately treated, which in my case was with medication. It's really hard to stay sober when you feel lousy all the time -- eventually you just want relief. I knew that if I drank again, I might die; but how much of a deterrent is that when you're suicidal anyway?" -- Janet Firshein |
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