The nice thing about teamwork is that you always have others on your side. ~Margaret Carty
In treating alcohol abuse and alcoholism, “we haven’t yet reached the Prozac moment,” said Dr. Mark Willenbring, referring to the drugs that radically changed the treatment of depression. But, Dr. Willenbring, an expert on treating alcohol addiction, predicts that the day is not far off when giving a pill and five minutes of advice to an alcoholic will be all that is needed to keep drinking under control.
Two such medications are already available, though they are not as effective as modern antidepressants have been for depression.
“We’re at the same place with alcohol abuse that the treatment of depression was at 40 years ago, when only psychiatrists treated it and most people with depression were never treated at all,” said Dr. Willenbring, the director of the Division of Treatment and Recovery Research at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
Then came Prozac, followed by similar antidepressants that took the treatment of depression out of mental hospital and psychiatric offices and put it in homes and in the offices of primary care doctors.
“Now almost all of depression is treated in primary care, and two-thirds to three-fourths of depression is getting treated.”
But with alcohol dependence, only one in eight receives professional treatment. “Those who get into treatment programs are the most severe alcoholics,” Dr. Willenbring said. But the bulk of alcohol abusers have a more moderate form, with a better prognosis. Most could get well in primary care settings and not have to wait until they are at the end of their rope.”
What is needed for controlling alcohol abuse early in the disease are drugs that can be easily prescribed by primary care physicians to help those with moderate alcohol abuse. Several such drugs are now in development.