The End of My Addiction

by Olivier Ameisen

"After years of battling uncontrollable addiction, I have achieved the supposedly complete freedom from craving." Dr. Olivier Ameisen was a brilliant cardiologist on the staff at one of America’s top teaching hospitals and running his own successful practice when he developed a profound addiction to alcohol. He broke bones with no memory of falling; he nearly lost his kidneys; he almost died from massive seizures during acute withdrawal. He gave up his flourishing practice and, fearing for his life, immersed himself in Alcoholics Anonymous, rehab, therapy, and a variety of medications. Nothing worked. So he did the only thing he he took his treatment into his own hands. Searching for a cure for his deadly disease, he happened upon baclofen, a muscle relaxant that had been used safely for years as a treatment for various types of muscle spasticity, but had more recently shown promising results in studies with laboratory animals addicted to a wide variety of substances. Dr. Ameisen prescribed himself the drug and experimented with increasingly higher dosages until he finally reached a level high enough to leave him free of any craving for alcohol. That was more than five years ago. Alcoholism claims three hundred lives per day in the United States alone; one in four U.S. deaths is attributable to alcohol, tobacco, or illegal drugs. Baclofen, as prescribed under a doctor’s care, could possibly free many addicts from tragic and debilitating illness. But as long as the medical and research establishments continue to ignore a cure for one of the most deadly diseases in the world, we won’t be able to understand baclofen’s full addiction-treatment potential. The End of My Addiction is both a memoir of Dr. Ameisen’s own struggle and a groundbreaking call to action—an urgent plea for research that can rescue millions from the scourge of addiction and spare their loved ones the collateral damage of the disease.

Genres: Nonfiction, Addiction, Memoir, Biography, Medicine, Science, Health

352 pages, Hardcover

First published October 9, 2008

About the author

French-American cardiologist.

Olivier Ameisen, MD, has proposed and tested an entirely new model for the treatment of addiction — not reduction of craving, but complete, rapid, effortless suppression of craving and other symptoms and consequences of addiction using high-dose baclofen therapy.

Born and raised in Paris, in 1983 Olivier moved to New York to join the prestigious cardiology team at New York Hospital and Cornell University Medical College (now New York-Presbyterian Hospital and Weill Cornell Medical College), where he became respectively an associate attending physician and associate professor of clinical medicine (subsequently clinical associate professor of medicine), in addition to later establishing a busy private practice. As an active participant in cardiology research at New York Hospital/Cornell, he co-authored 16 papers in peer-reviewed medical journals on the evaluation of coronary artery disease and related topics.

A lifelong sufferer from chronic anxiety and panic attacks, which medications and therapy failed to resolve, Olivier turned to alcohol as a form of self-medication. When he began to suffer from alcoholism in the late 1990s, he voluntarily closed his practice and devoted himself to recovering from the disease, trying singly and in combination all the established treatments as prescribed by his physicians. Nothing worked.

Learning that in animal studies high-dose baclofen had suppressed addicted animals’ motivation to consume alcohol, amphetamine, cocaine, nicotine, and opiates, and postulating that these craving-suppressing effects could be transposed to humans, he experimented on himself and discovered that high-dose baclofen could completely free human patients from addiction.

Subsequently he learned that high-dose baclofen has long been safely used without limiting side effects for comfort care in benign conditions in neurology. He then broke his anonymity to publish his discovery and offer a new model for the treatment of alcoholism and other addictions in a self-case report in the peer-reviewed medical journal Alcohol and Alcoholism. Since then, an increasing number of patients have obtained complete freedom from addiction by taking baclofen, as prescribed and supervised by their physicians, in accordance with his treatment protocol. To date, nearly one hundred such cases have been documented by clinical researchers.

Olivier continues to devote his efforts to the treatment of addiction and to furthering research into baclofen and its mechanisms of action. He is the author of six peer-reviewed papers on addiction in specialist and general medical journals, including Alcohol and Alcoholism, The Journal of the American Medical Association, CNS Drugs, and The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse.

Reviews

[Ryan Holiday · Rating 5 out of 5]

I approached this book with some skepticism. By the end, I felt guilty to have been stuck making the same mistake as the highly-credentialed doctors who refused to consider the merits of Ameisen's research because they'd grown so fixated on traditional treatments. 12 Step programs are a god-send for many but considering their alarming relapse rates, doctors (and readers) remain open minded to new alternatives. Like the author rightly points out, we've come to believe that addiction is a disease but have been treating it the same way for nearly 70 years. For what other illness would that be acceptable? Where else would we tolerate prevailing sentiment that blames the victims?

The premise of the book is that after years of struggling with an addiction that lead to the voluntary closure of his medical practice, Dr. Ameisen begins to look for off-label solutions to his sickness. Believing that AA and rehab were not complete cures - attending 2 meetings a day for 7 years to only temporary success - he hears of a obscure drug called baclofen that has made some progress curing alcoholism in rats. He begins to self-prescribe the drug at very high doses, following the scientific method and recording the results when he can. High does of baclofen led to an almost immediate end of all craving and achieved 9 months of sobriety. An open minded editor of a medical journal agreed to publish his findings and this potential cure has been slowly making it's way through the medical community. Unfortunately, doctors are prey to the same entrenched dilemmas that all businesses are and they have been reluctant to experiment further with his ideas, despite the promising signs. Ameisen, thankfully, has remained sober since.

What is perhaps most striking besides the scientific implications, is that in addition to being a renowned pianist and doctor, Ameisen is a strikingly talented writer. He makes complicated medical topics easily digestible and he speaks of his addiction openly rather than shamefully. A common assumption might be that a work of this nature would be full of rationalizations or cognitive dissonance. That is not the case - it is clear and forthcoming. Nor is it dull or too anecdotal.

Though this book was not the subject of much fanfare at release, it's significance will certainly grow in time. If ongoing studies corroborate Ameisen's results this will stand as a ground breaking work and a turning point in the treatment of addiction.

[Lucia Gannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

An honest tale of the destructive effect of alcohol. Olivier Ameisen is a remarkable individual. He is a gifted musician and a successful cardiologist. He has one almost fatal flaw. He was born with a genetic predisposition to constant anxiety and alcohol dependency. Using alcohol to curb his anxiety he quickly spirals into alcohol dependency and suffers all the consequences of an addict. Financial ruin, health problems including withdrawal seizures and almost loses his license to practice as a doctor.
But Olivier dosen't give up. Despite living with continuous alcohol cravings, beyond his control, he spends his lucid moments trying to find something to help him emerge from this alcoholic hell.

He discovers Baclofen-a drug used to help muscle relaxation in neuromuscular disorders. In the absences of a physician willing to prescribe this drug for him he performs his own experiment-on himself.
The result is nothing short of miraculous...

This book has had a profound effect on how I think about addictions, particularly alcohol addiction.
It's author is a brave and courageous man to write his story honestly, warts and all. It is very readable, not at all over-burdened with scientific detail. It contains no pathos, no regrets, no self-flagellation. The story is presented in a matter-of-fact way. The author exhibits 100% acceptance of his condition. This, in turn, is helpful for the reader to think of addictions in terms of biological diseases and accept that the person suffering from such a condition deserves not less than 100% acceptance from their carers.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was skeptical when I first heard of this book. If this man had actually found a cure for his alcoholism, why wasn't it all over the news?

Answer: Because Big Pharma doesn't want to fund studies showing how baclofen (a generic drug normally prescribed for multiple sclerosis) is effective in reducing anxiety, cravings, and the obsession for alcohol and other drugs.

This was a well organized book, complete with relevant articles, abstracts, and a nice bibliography. This subject interested me so much (even though I am not an addict and actually do not know any addicts) that I went to PubMed and looked up some current articles concerning baclofen and addiction. I was pleased to see that progress is being made, albeit slowly.

This book was written for the layperson, so don't be scared that it's full of medical jargon. If you have any connection to addicts, or are just interested in biology, chemistry, psychology, addiction, or how our society treats addicts, you must read this book.

It truly lives up to the "amazing" rating I give it!

[Mads P. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this for class for a report about interventions for alcohol dependence. This book was helpful in understanding stigma against those with diseases of addiction. Even when interacting with medical professionals, patients can expect to be judged and blamed for their disease and treated differently than patients with other diseases. Suggesting that chemical dependency patients have a spiritual or moral deficit that once overcome will cure their addiction is not only naive but also counterproductive in battling addiction. The book helps show the true power of craving to break willpower and spiritual and moral conviction. Physiological craving is the symptom of a disease; evidence-based treatments must be demanded. Whether baclofen is the answer, I don't know. It is still not in wide use for the treatment of chemical dependency. The book, near the end, started to sound like a commercial for baclofen. I hope that the research on it that has finally been funded provides some more conclusive results. If it does prove to be an effective treatment for many, the author has done a great service in sharing his story and advocating for research. Even if it doesn't, the book is still very eye-opening for those who wish to understand treatment for addiction from a patient's perspective.

[Nor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just started a placement in addiction psychiatry and this was an insightful read about someone's personal journey and trial of baclofen as a successful treatment for alcohol addiction.

[Joy · Rating 4 out of 5]

3 stars for the presentation. 5 stars for the idea and the guts to tell the story.

[Madeleine Fletcher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential and compelling reading for anyone addicted to anything they don't want to be addicted to, be it cigarettes, alcohol, overeating, etc. The author's solution for people struggling to eliminate a craving that is wreaking havoc with their lives and relationships is high dose baclofen, a safe, relatively inexpensive, older medication that is ignored by the big pharmaceutical companies because they can't make a lot of money off of it. The scientific papers lending support to his thesis are all reprinted in the appendix. So this is a very useful book, as the use of high-dose baclofen is currently off-label for addictions, and one would have to convince one's doctor if one would want to have a prescription for it, this book would help with that.

[Kathryn · Rating 1 out of 5]

If there was a zero star rating, I would have used it

[Brandon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was fascinated by the neurochemistry/other life sciences in the book intermingled with the storyline of what happened.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great novel on Ameisen's struggle with alcoholism and how he became his own case study in finding a new way to treatment Alcohol Use Disorder. Love the multiple case studies presented and the detail of baclofen regimen used.

[Roy]

Excellent

[Jord · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting, but poorly written, casestudy.

[Claudia DW · Rating 2 out of 5]

You can just read his case report and take it seriously instead of reading the book

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

physician's memoir of his very severe alcohol dependency, which cost him his career as a cardiologist, and the self-treatment he conducted using high-dose baclofen off-label. He published a case report a couple years ago about his own treatment, contending that the drug completely suppressed craving, such that maintaining abstinence was easy for him, and greatly reduced his lifelong anxiety, self-medication of which is ostensibly why he had been drinking for so many years and through so many failed treatments.

In part the book reads as an ad for the systematic research he hopes will be initiated on baclofen for addiction treatment. Apparently, drug companies are unmotivated to study it b/c it's already out of patent, so there's little profit to be obtained should it prove successful.

The number of interventions that have helped one person in particular via uncontrolled case study is infinite, and most don't turn out to be worth much, but he does have a coherent rationale for why it should work, some animal research that fits, and apparently reasonable credibility with some brain researchers who know what they're talking about, so maybe it will turn out to be a breakthrough.

first part of the book is a boring (to me) recitation of the awful things he did and said while getting drunk all the time -- at the risk of sounding insensitive, this sort of description is fascinating at first but numbing eventually.

Author is very very sure of himself, a bit dismissive of everybody else [college students could create a [hopefully non-alcoholic:] drinking game with this book by taking a drink every time he writes approximately "I told [health professional x:] that my drinking was secondary to anxiety, but they didn't want to listen"], and writes in overdetailed fashion about trivia such as how he discovered how to use PubMed for literature searches.

Nevertheless, if you're interested in addiction treatment, it's worth a look.

[Kony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Among the dozen or so addiction memoirs I've read, this one's pretty good. In terms of storytelling, it's well-written, well-paced, and narrated in an engaging voice. In terms of substance, it stands out for two reasons.

(1) The narrator is a doctor, so he describes his journey through symptoms, treatment, relapse, and finally recovery from the perspective of someone who really understands and takes seriously the scientific method. Unlike many addicts and experts, he's clear-eyed about distinguishing his chronic anxiety from his alcoholism, clarifying that the former is a root cause of the latter.

(2) The narrator has cured himself with a little-known miracle drug (baclofen), so he's writing not for cathartic or literary purposes, but to promote his cure. His book is basically a vehicle for describing why and how he ran a case study on himself, then published it in a peer-reviewed journal to deafening silence from the medical community. For all that, the book is still engaging, not didactic, and reads like a human story - except the last chapter, which reads like a grant proposal plus op-ed. For aesthetic reasons I'd have cut this chapter and made it an appendix. But I appreciate his sense of moral urgency.

[Christa Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating read about Olivier Ameisen's struggle with anxiety co-mingled with addiction to alcohol. Although an accomplished cardiologist, the alcohol addiction led to the demise of his practice as well as complete disruption of his life. He found complete relief through the use of baclofen, a drug with minimal side effects. I recommend it to anyone who struggles with addiction or has loved ones who struggle with addiction.

[Todd · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a clinician I appreciate anything that attends to the biochemical nature of addiction. I am a fan of anti-craving medication and I felt his approach was refreshing in that he was using a medical approach to deal with a medical problem.

I would hope that more people would explore Naltrexone, Campral or other methods to deal with cravings.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

a bit of a twist to the memoir genre. enjoyed the writing

[Kara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting look into the politics of medication in the U.S.

[Carolyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

High-dose baclofen protocol. Cravings built upon chronic lifelong anxiety and panic.

[Scott Helms]

I wish one of my family members had access to a clinical trial of baclofen and therapy.

solid read.