The Use of Apomorphine in the Treatment of Alcoholism and other Addictions: Results of a General Practitioner

Abstract

AbstractPositive results of apomorphine treatment of alcoholics is reported in the literature; results with opiate addicts or multiple drug abusers also seem encouraging.Two kinds of treatment applied in the author's study are described. The fast consists of injections of apomorphine in emetic doses given subcutaneously three times a day (“high‐dose treatment schedule”). The second consists of low subnauseal doses injected continuously every two hours (“fractional treatment”).123 addicted patients (55 alcoholics, 59 opiate addicts or multiple drug abusers, 9 patients dependent on other psychotropic drugs) were treated with apomorphine. 80 patients (65 per cent) stayed drug free, 50 (41 per cent) were found to stay drug free longer than six months. Treatment was more successful with alcoholics and patients dependent on other psychotropic drugs than with opiate addicts and multiple drug abusers. It is too early to arrive at a definite evaluation of apomorphine treatment. However, results of our study suggest further systematic research on apomorphine in the treatment of addictions.