Access to Medication.

Many thanks Natalie,this is just what i thought.

Thanks for reply, although what i have read in the past is that many people have been prescibed this while still drinking but as you say it maybe the cost is the only reason for not giving it while still drinking.

Selincro (Nalmefene) can be prescribed on NHS per NICE guidelines if one is drinking within a certain range and it's much more expensive than Naltrexone. 

At the C3 Foundation Europe website, click on the Services menu and look at the Information column. The NHS Information Service and Local NHS Guidelines sections might be useful to you. 

Many thanks for information.

It's not down to cost.

Many people in the US have been prescribed it, where it is on label for AUD (and Selincro is not). Not many are prescribed it in the UK, because the guidlines say that it is for people who are abstinent. You are far more likely to get prescribed Selincro in the UK, but unfortunately, not often by your GP.

Thanks again,it seems there are different guide lines,i have just read up some on the Sinclair Method and these words are highlighted ( Extingtion takes time and requires active drinking together with Naltrexone before full de addition can happen.

Okay, very simply, the US has chosen naltrexone, the UK has chosen nalmefene (Selincro).

I am not commening on which is better or should you have a choice.

You asked:

"Hi,i have been told that i cannot go on Naltrexone unless i am completely dry,can anybody tell me if this is true."

If you are in the UK, then yes, that is virtually true. That is the question you asked and it has been answered.

GO's won't prescribe or do anything where I live in North Yorkshire. Just farm you off to the local 'recovery' centre, who, to be honest, having been there before, have very little faith in!!

You don't have to live in sheep bothering country to get that, it is pretty much the same all over Britain. Oh, is that the time, Emmerdale is about to start.

Ha ha ha - I had just looked at the clock and thought that lol.

Numpty, my doc was the same - not a chance just passed to recovery.

Miles away from Emmerdale country and not a sheep in sight.

If you live in the Selby, Northallerton, Scarborough, Skipton or Harrogate area of North Yorkshire, then your local NHS authority have given the North Yorkshire 'Horizons' recovery centre the authority to assess and prescribe nalmefene.

However, some workers at Horizons will not be aware of this as they normally do not get involved in the prescribing of medications.  You would need to take the NHS local authority statement confirming this to an appointment (which I can provide you with if you PM me) and with their own procedure in front of them, you ask for an appointment to see the prescribing physician.

......should have said damned not dampened 😱!!

It is because nalmefene doesn't give your liver a hard time, where as naltrexone has the potential to. Therefore, people taking naltrexone have to take LFTs, before it will be prescribed.

Seems I'm very lucky to have got it.

It's a green prescription in Kent so it can be prescribed by a GP and while still drinking. To convince her I went to an alcohol clinic then said that self motivation alone won't be enough and showed her all the info.

My liver enzymes were raised due to drinking but not massively.

I just hope she will prescribe it again to me when I tell her how well it has worked.

Otherwise buying it will be costly. Over a hundred pounds a box ! Altho let's face it drinking 7 bottles of wine or more a week kinda puts it in perspective really....

My own doc in the US told me that even if people have high liver enzymes, Naltrexone generally has far less of a negative impact than drinking and people's liver enzyme levels generally improve on TSM. 

Yep well I realised that, but it meant not drinking which contradicts everything they warn you about if you just stop. Also there is the issue with Naltrexone that certain pain relief in case of accidents or hospitalisation, i.e. morphine are much less effective and you have to carry a card that states you are on Naltrexone. I found that daunting.

They never told me this.

But since TSM means you only take a tablet when you drink hopefully after not long it wouldn't be everyday and the tablet lasts about 10-12 hours so wouldn't be in your system 24/7.

I guess it would be unlucky if you had an accident and that happened.

It does say don't take with opioid medicines and I know you have to be sober to take it for heroin/cocaine etc.

Thanks for reply.

The same is also true of nalmefene, Numpty.

Both naltrexone and nalmefene are opioid-antagonist medications - meaning that they both block opiates and so a card comes with each medication just in the unlikely event on an accident, a paramedic will know what to do.

As a keen cyclist, I used an inexpensive rubber medical band that I bought for less than a fiver.  If I had naltrexone (or nalmefene) in my system, I popped the band on whilst I was cycling. If I was just out and about in a normal day, shopping or something, I kept the card in my purse.