06 January 2017

The efficacy of combining naltrexone with either supportive or cognitive–behavioral therapy (CBT) in patients with alcohol use disorder was studied by O’Malley et al. (19). This 12-week trial showed the medication to be well tolerated and to be superior to placebo in increasing the rate of abstinence and reducing the number of drinking days and relapse events and the severity of alcohol-related problems. There was an interaction effect of medication and therapy. The cumulative rate of abstinence was highest for patients treated with naltrexone and supportive therapy. However, for patients who drank, those who received naltrexone and coping skills therapy were least likely to relapse to heavy drinking.

Compulsive gambling is the only non-chemical addiction included in the latest version of DSM. The internal reasons of the manual authors to make this choice are unclear to some people; the appropriateness of this decision is sometimes discussed in reference books. Some external factors seem to play an important part in the decision. In particular, the tremendous destructiveness of this activity for the whole social life of a human, especially his or her welfare. Undoubtedly, a person is pushed to gamble by a thirst of becoming rich immediately. By administering alcohol to our body we put a goal for ourselves too.