Medications to help with alcohol use

If you are dependent on alcohol (which means you experience withdrawal symptoms like sweating and shaking without it), then you can either slowly reduce the amount you drink so your body gets used to drinking less, or you can take medication called chlordiazepoxide to stop completely. Our nurses can prescribe this. This is called a medically assisted withdrawal.

A medically assisted withdrawal is best suited to people drinking very high amounts daily or who have additional risk factors, such as poor mental health. A nurse will assess whether this medication is right for you. Before seeing the nurse, your recovery worker will help you keep an accurate record of your drinking so the correct dosage can be calculated. You will then start at this dosage before this is reduced daily until you can stop the medication altogether. This process usually takes about a week. You will also need to have a friend or family member staying with you throughout this time. For more information about chlordiazepoxide, please speak with your recovery worker.

We also prescribe medications that can help you manage your alcohol use longer-term. Acamprosate can help reduce cravings. Naltrexone can block the effects of alcohol, so it is less pleasurable to drink. Disulfiram (often called Antabuse) can make you allergic to alcohol, so you will become very ill if you drink. Because of this, a nurse needs to be particularly careful when prescribing disulfiram and will usually explore other options first.