Word: drinked
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They call it "the switch." Alcoholics who take an anticraving medication called baclofen say the drug allows them to resist the most powerful triggers of relapse: former drinking buddies, a favorite bar, the sight of alcohol or even the most potent drinking cue of all, having a single drink...
...business owner in the Midwest, who asked not to be identified by his real name, experienced his switch at a dinner party two years ago. Bob had battled alcohol dependency for several decades, regularly drinking at least 35 beers a week. Normally he would have downed several glasses of wine before dinner, he says, but that night, after taking baclofen for two weeks, he found himself sipping soda water instead, engrossed in conversation. "I realized I wasn't having that nagging feeling in my head, 'I should really get a drink,'" says Bob. "It never appeared during the dinner either...
...alcoholic, Ameisen had checked into various rehabilitation centers at least eight times and attended nearly 5,000 Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meetings, without being able to maintain sobriety. More than five years ago, he began taking baclofen, and since then, he says, he has consistently been able to abstain from drinking altogether or drink moderately in social situations, without having cravings or other addiction-related problems...
Whether or not baclofen proves to be the next big quit drug - there are at least four other prescription drugs currently available to help people stop smoking or drinking, including naltrexone, buproprion, acomprosate and Chantix, which have shown varying degrees of benefit - most addiction researchers would continue to encourage abstinence. "There are always some patients who can [cut down] to drink small amounts, but they are the exception," says Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which is funding several ongoing trials of baclofen. Although Volkow thinks baclofen shows promise in helping patients quit drinking altogether...
...then, of course, there's the global financial crisis, which has hit Russia particularly hard. On top of all the economic woes, there's a shrinking population, a military that remains something of a joke and a problem with AIDS. Plus, you still can't (or shouldn't) drink a glass of tap water in central Moscow...