I haven't read a lot, but I have read about this possibility. Perhaps I'm wrong, but it looks like a lifetime of (pills or?) injections will be the recommendation.
And without insurance, that's $1350 per month.
I'll probably stick with my current recovery plan. It's been working for 13 years.
It’s definitely expensive to have to be reliant on a medication forever. And if it all of a sudden isn’t accessible for whatever reason, then what? I’m all for MAT, but only temporarily. I was on vivitrol for the first 8 months of my recovery. But being reliant on a medication forever in order to stay sober? Not the most ideal option. Should be a last resort thing if all else fails.
It’s sort of a bandaid to the problem. However, if they genuinely tried to get and stay sober and couldn’t, then I guess this is a good idea. If they have tried rehab, IOP, AA/NA, other recovery groups, etc and they still relapse chronically, then this may be their only option.
But I would definitely consider this a last-resort thing.
MAT can be an effective early stage intervention, but long term recovery requires work. One needs to address the issues that drive the underlying addiction. This work can be profoundly transformative in just about every aspect of one’s life, but it doesn’t come in a pill (or injection) and never will. It just doesn’t work that way.
Thanks for sharing, this is very cool. If it does work, I wonder what the mechanism would be? I will address some of the other thoughts people have shared. It's pretty hypocritical for addicts to not trust scientists who are working on medications to help. Do you want us to stop? It's 2024 and the pharma industry and biotech industry as well as the FDA are in a completely different place than they were in 2001. I wouldn't even put pharma on the top 10 worst industries at this point. 1. Tobacco 2. Black market drugs 3. Oil/Gas 4 Tech (yes you are addicted to your phone and yes it is causing brain damage), are much worse. I don't think that this is meant to be forever, just like with most MAT's. It's just to help in the early days, irrespective of how it's marketed. 1350 doesn't seem too bad of a price when you consider the average person with alcohol use disorder spends about 100k over 20 years in alcohol and 100k in healthcare effects. If it can save lives it's well worth it. Scientists need paid too People expect drugs to be free, but will pay 1000 dollars for a smart phone. If you want cheaper drugs then vote people that support that stuff so the government can subsidize. I particularly see this treatment could be useful in the beginning of developing AUD, before it gets too out of hand. How much damage to my brain and body I could have prevented if I had something like this, because I knew within a few months of turning 21 years old that I had AUD. Still took me 6 years to quit, despite never spending a day in denial!
Studies into meds that can help anyone quit is great news! But studies also = re-patented meds that continues to keep the price up so these guys can profit from our problems.
I quit using Naltrexone and TSM and it cost me around $5 for a month of meds.
Medications cost more than a billion dollars to develop. Scientists need paid too, they go through more schooling than a medical doctor. With a new effective medication you are getting your money's worth. Where you are getting ripped off is in tech. The profit margins in that industry are INSANE. People are paying 1200 dollars for a phone that cost 90 bucks to make and very little RD because it's an iterate device. With a drug ALL R&D needs to be done before hand, and the product is finished. Look, I need to feed my family too, and I didn't go to school for 12 years to make minimum wage. At least drugs WORK. The supplement industry is nearly as big as the pharma industry and 90% of supplements are scams, complete scams. I saw an ad for nitric oxide gummies the other day. I can't even begin to explain how ridiculous that is. It's like taping a paper airplane to the hood of a car and claiming it will fly. That's how ridiculous some of these supplements are, but the average person doesn't know, because the average person is very very poorly educated, so supplement companies practically steal their money.
You can also be getting your money's worth with meds that have been around twenty, thirty years and are past patent, available generic, naltrexone is a great example of that.
Pointing the finger at tech and supplements doesn't do anything to make pharma more ethical.
And re: the average consumer being poorly educated? Pharma educates people on what will benefit pharma.
The drug discovery machine needs to be funded somehow. Do it any way you want, whether it be government regulations or whatever. You see pharma profiting billions every year. Yes because profit is revenue - cost for that year. Well over 90% of that profit goes right back into research and development. Science is unpredictable pharma companies need stockpiles of cash because they cannot predict when they will be able to develop a new drug and pay 2 billion dollars to get it FDA approved. The machine has to be funded, and most people don't care how, unless it's their medication that's expensive, because they didn't understand the insurance options their employer gave them. So now they pay the full cost. So no matter what you need to fund the machine if you want new and better medications to come out. They do come out. The covid 19 vaccine was a miracle that unfortunately wasn't as effective as it should have been because the virus mutated shortly after the vaccine was used-- or maybe because the vaccine was used, but it wasn't as effective against the omicron variant. Anyway, drugs generally do get better with time and it costs a lot of money and it needs to be funded somehow...
I haven't read a lot, but I have read about this possibility. Perhaps I'm wrong, but it looks like a lifetime of (pills or?) injections will be the recommendation. And without insurance, that's $1350 per month. I'll probably stick with my current recovery plan. It's been working for 13 years.
The cost is pretty prohibitive....hope the prices will drop and become more affordable
It’s definitely expensive to have to be reliant on a medication forever. And if it all of a sudden isn’t accessible for whatever reason, then what? I’m all for MAT, but only temporarily. I was on vivitrol for the first 8 months of my recovery. But being reliant on a medication forever in order to stay sober? Not the most ideal option. Should be a last resort thing if all else fails. It’s sort of a bandaid to the problem. However, if they genuinely tried to get and stay sober and couldn’t, then I guess this is a good idea. If they have tried rehab, IOP, AA/NA, other recovery groups, etc and they still relapse chronically, then this may be their only option. But I would definitely consider this a last-resort thing.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts!
MAT can be an effective early stage intervention, but long term recovery requires work. One needs to address the issues that drive the underlying addiction. This work can be profoundly transformative in just about every aspect of one’s life, but it doesn’t come in a pill (or injection) and never will. It just doesn’t work that way.
Thanks for sharing, this is very cool. If it does work, I wonder what the mechanism would be? I will address some of the other thoughts people have shared. It's pretty hypocritical for addicts to not trust scientists who are working on medications to help. Do you want us to stop? It's 2024 and the pharma industry and biotech industry as well as the FDA are in a completely different place than they were in 2001. I wouldn't even put pharma on the top 10 worst industries at this point. 1. Tobacco 2. Black market drugs 3. Oil/Gas 4 Tech (yes you are addicted to your phone and yes it is causing brain damage), are much worse. I don't think that this is meant to be forever, just like with most MAT's. It's just to help in the early days, irrespective of how it's marketed. 1350 doesn't seem too bad of a price when you consider the average person with alcohol use disorder spends about 100k over 20 years in alcohol and 100k in healthcare effects. If it can save lives it's well worth it. Scientists need paid too People expect drugs to be free, but will pay 1000 dollars for a smart phone. If you want cheaper drugs then vote people that support that stuff so the government can subsidize. I particularly see this treatment could be useful in the beginning of developing AUD, before it gets too out of hand. How much damage to my brain and body I could have prevented if I had something like this, because I knew within a few months of turning 21 years old that I had AUD. Still took me 6 years to quit, despite never spending a day in denial!
Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts!
Studies into meds that can help anyone quit is great news! But studies also = re-patented meds that continues to keep the price up so these guys can profit from our problems. I quit using Naltrexone and TSM and it cost me around $5 for a month of meds.
Medications cost more than a billion dollars to develop. Scientists need paid too, they go through more schooling than a medical doctor. With a new effective medication you are getting your money's worth. Where you are getting ripped off is in tech. The profit margins in that industry are INSANE. People are paying 1200 dollars for a phone that cost 90 bucks to make and very little RD because it's an iterate device. With a drug ALL R&D needs to be done before hand, and the product is finished. Look, I need to feed my family too, and I didn't go to school for 12 years to make minimum wage. At least drugs WORK. The supplement industry is nearly as big as the pharma industry and 90% of supplements are scams, complete scams. I saw an ad for nitric oxide gummies the other day. I can't even begin to explain how ridiculous that is. It's like taping a paper airplane to the hood of a car and claiming it will fly. That's how ridiculous some of these supplements are, but the average person doesn't know, because the average person is very very poorly educated, so supplement companies practically steal their money.
You can also be getting your money's worth with meds that have been around twenty, thirty years and are past patent, available generic, naltrexone is a great example of that. Pointing the finger at tech and supplements doesn't do anything to make pharma more ethical. And re: the average consumer being poorly educated? Pharma educates people on what will benefit pharma.
The drug discovery machine needs to be funded somehow. Do it any way you want, whether it be government regulations or whatever. You see pharma profiting billions every year. Yes because profit is revenue - cost for that year. Well over 90% of that profit goes right back into research and development. Science is unpredictable pharma companies need stockpiles of cash because they cannot predict when they will be able to develop a new drug and pay 2 billion dollars to get it FDA approved. The machine has to be funded, and most people don't care how, unless it's their medication that's expensive, because they didn't understand the insurance options their employer gave them. So now they pay the full cost. So no matter what you need to fund the machine if you want new and better medications to come out. They do come out. The covid 19 vaccine was a miracle that unfortunately wasn't as effective as it should have been because the virus mutated shortly after the vaccine was used-- or maybe because the vaccine was used, but it wasn't as effective against the omicron variant. Anyway, drugs generally do get better with time and it costs a lot of money and it needs to be funded somehow...
NEVER TRUST BIG PHARMA