GHB:Used to help easy off Alcohol withdrawl

[pharmapsyche]

One of GHB's best-known therapeutic qualities is the easing of alcohol withdrawal. Human studies have addressed both the physiological and psychological aspects of this challenge.

Short-Term Study:
During a study, addicts were given a single dose of GHB and compared to a control group in terms of the following symptoms: tremors, sweating, nausea, depression, anxiety, and restlessness. The test was double-blind, meaning each subject drank a strong-tasting cherry syrup, but neither when they reported their symptoms nor the scientist evaluating them knew whether each one's syrup contained GHB. Blood pressure and subjective effects such as drowsiness and nausea were monitored. Afterwards, the control patients were released into standard therapy while the GHB group remained on the medication three times a day for the remainder of the week.

The results were excellent. Severity of withdrawal dropped drastically within the first hour, and continued to decrease within the next eight. Control subjects became progressively worse in this same period. A majority of GHB subjects reported dizziness, but no other symptoms. To ensure that GHB was not just doping them into submission, subjects were tested on a word-fluency task-no differences were found between groups. After the third day of the experiment, GHB doses were reduced by 30% per day and discontinued on the eighth.

Long-Term Study:
The latter experiment involved a 36-week study of recovering alcoholics, who took small doses of GHB three times a day and were compared in terms of drinking behavior and goals. By the end, over 2/3 of the GHB group wanted to give up or moderate alcohol use, compared to less than 1/4 of the control. Urine analysis indicated that their behavior was consistent with these statements.
A later experiment gauging cravingfor alcohol showed a similar improvement, and also discovered that many unresponsive subjects began to benefit when the same daily dose was divided into six administrations. The dose given in both experiments was 50mg/kg, which for most is 3-4g.
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GHB is free of physiologically addicting properties, and habitual use rarely becomes a problem in recreational uses. In this case, however, the frequent administration and tremendous relief it brings the recovering addict may create a dependency problem. Also, alcoholics are likely to have some learned or genetic predisposition to addictive behavior, putting them at a greater risk. This hardly vitiates its value for these purposes, but it is defiantly something for the doctors as well as the patients to think about.

Addolorato, G. et al.. "Maintaining abstenence from alcohol with gammahydroxybutyric acid". Lancet. 1998. 351(9095). 38.
Ferrara, SD. Zotti, S. Tedeschi, L. Frison, G. Palatini, P. et al.. "Pharmacokinetics of gamma-hydroxybutyric acid in alcohol dependent. . .". British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. 1992. 34. 231-235. R 31 B 93

[Jatelka]

Nice post MissM! Don't suppose you could post the references?

Thankyou.

[Amenselah]

GHB works on the brain like alcohol does as well as benzos...

in fact benzos and or alcohol are needed to stop the withdrawals form G..

matter of fact when SWIM is off G he tends to drink daily

>>>GHB is free of physiologically addicting properties, and habitual use rarely becomes a problem in recreational uses. In this case, however, the frequent administration and tremendous relief it brings the recovering addict may create a dependency problem. Also, alcoholics are likely to have some learned or genetic predisposition to addictive behavior, putting them at a greater risk. This hardly vitiates its value for these purposes, but it is defiantly something for the doctors as well as the patients to think about.<<<