One of the world’s most popular addiction blogs reviewed Wasted – check it out:
This is a true story of an alcoholic therapist who was struggling with his own alcohol problem. In his previous book “The Couch of Willingness”, Michael Pond and wife, Maureen Palmer, shared experiences with coping alcohol issues to which many people can relate and learn from (you can see the review of “The Couch of Willingness” ).
In their new book “Wasted: An Alcoholic Therapist’s Fight for Recovery in a Flawed Treatment System”, Michael and Maureen shed light on their path–one that revealed the underbelly of traditional treatment for addiction. In trying different treatment settings, they reveal what they’ve actually seen as major problems over alcohol addiction rehabilitation.
Read the entire review here.
When I researched Naltrexone, I came across The Sinclair Method. The Sinclair Method was not mentioned by our prescribing doctor or in Wasted. Any feedback about TSM would be appreciated.
We do indeed know about the Sinclair Method. We just didn’t have time to address it in our documentary. Mike’s got three clients now trying it and it’s early days so we can’t tell you yet whether it is working for them. Below is a brief description courtesy of Kenneth Anderson of the Harm Reduction Network.
When doctors in Canada and the U.S. prescribe naltrexone for the treatment of Alcohol Dependence, they tell people to abstain from alcohol and to take naltrexone daily.
Yet Dr. David Sinclair in Finland claims an 80% cure rate for Alcohol Dependence when naltrexone is prescribed according to his method. Dr. Sinclair’s research has been published in the peer-reviewed journals. See links below.
With The Sinclair Method, people only take naltrexone before drinking and never otherwise. Naltrexone is not like Antabuse – it causes no sickness when taken with alcohol and there is no noticeable change in people’s drinking behavior when they first start taking naltrexone; this change in behavior only appears over time. With The Sinclair Method Naltrexone is taken one hour before drinking alcohol; the usual dosage is 50 mg although this may need some adjustment up or down to fit the individual. This results in a process called the pharmacological extinction of Alcohol Dependence. At the end of four to six months of treatment with The Sinclair Method, 80% of Alcohol Dependent subjects are either drinking moderately or abstaining from alcohol. It is now the standard treatment protocol for Alcohol Dependence in Finland.
If you’d like to know more google C3 Foundation, an American advocacy group. Or click on the links below.
Alcohol and Alcoholism
and the Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology