Naltrexone: The £3 miracle pill praised for tackling alcohol and substance misuse disorder
A £3 pill has been hailed as the “Ozempic for drinking” after being praised for helping people cut down their alcohol consumption.
The medication in question is naltrexone, which is primarily used to manage alcohol use or opioid use disorder by reducing cravings and feelings of euphoria associated with substance use disorder.
If taken an hour before consuming alcohol, the drug can have a high success rate at getting patients to drastically reduce how much alcohol they consume as it helps fight cravings.
In 2023, the World Health Organisation made a landmark public health decision to recognise the public health burden associated with alcohol use disorders and now recommends the medications of acamprosate and naltrexone to help with management of drinking problems.
The organisation states that alcohol consumption leads to 3 million global deaths per year, and contributes to poor health in millions of people. It is estimated that worldwide close to 300 million people live with alcohol use disorders, including about 150 million people with alcohol dependence.
Writing in The Telegraph, journalist Annabel Fenwick Elliott spoke about her own experience of receiving a treatment programme that involved taking naltrexone to reduce her alcohol intake.
“When I discovered, first through research and then from experimenting with it myself, that this pill works, in such an astoundingly simple way – like ibuprofen for headaches – I was baffled as to why it isn’t common knowledge,” she wrote.
The journalist compared it to the effects of Ozempic, the weight loss injection and diabetes medication that can stunt a person’s appetite.
“What I have found is, I believe, a bit like Ozempic but for people who drink too much, rather than those who overeat.”
Writing about her experience, Fenwick Elliot wrote: “An hour after I first took the pill, I poured a glass of wine and was astounded by the results. It looked like wine. It tasted like wine. It offered the same mild relaxation effect, but the euphoria didn’t kick in. I kept taking another sip, waiting for the chain reaction to fire off; the one that usually takes me to the end of the bottle, but it never did. I took a larger gulp, then half an hour later, did something I hadn’t done in as long as I can remember – I tipped the rest down the sink.”
The journalist says that while she was receiving the treatment ended up “turning down” offers of alcoholic beverages when attending social events because she “genuinely didn’t feel like one”.
The method of curbing alcohol consumption is called the Sinclair Method, which uses naltrexone as an off-switch for problem drinkers. The idea is that the drinker keeps drinking while also taking naltrexone, as developed by Dr David Sinclair, who was an expert in alcohol addiction and worked at the Finnish Foundation for Alcohol Studies.
The drug was first approved in 1984, but it is difficult for GPs to prescribe in the UK due to licensing issues surrounding the medication.
The method of treatment is not offered by the NHS, but in the UK, it be accessed through a private clinic, which also offers addiction counselling.
