[darkrunner]

Has anybody taken Revia? It is not in the medications sections of psych central, and when I searched the web I found it commonly described for alcoholism.

My (new) pdoc prescribed it for me today (50 mg) for obsessive thoughts, especially around my eating disorder and self-injury. Not sure what to make of this - any personal experiences with this drug would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
kt

[splitimage]

Originally Posted by ktgirl

Has anybody taken Revia? It is not in the medications sections of psych central, and when I searched the web I found it commonly described for alcoholism.

My (new) pdoc prescribed it for me today (50 mg) for obsessive thoughts, especially around my eating disorder and self-injury. Not sure what to make of this - any personal experiences with this drug would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
kt

''I take it to help with alcohol cravings, although there are newer and more targetted drugs for that, but I can't take them. Technically Revia (naltrexone) is an opiad inhibitor, meaning that if you take any opiates they won't give you any kind of high, so it's primarily prescribed for people with opiate abuse problems. But they've found it works on other addictions, seemingly by blocking the reward pathway. I know a woman who is on for a gambling addiction - but she hasn't been on it long enough for it to have any effect.

If you drink, you'll probably find that affected as it also blocks the buzz you get from drinking - you still get drunk, you just don't have any fun doing it. It's never made the slightest difference in my desire to SI.

good news / bad news on side effects. I have no noticeable side effects except feeling like my head was stuffed with cotton wool for a couple of days after starting on it. The bad news is it not only interferes with bad opiates - it interferes with all opiates. So any opiod based pain killer, like codeine or morphene or a whole host of others simply will not work. if you're taking it, you should cary a card in your wallet saying that you're taking it so that if you're in an accident they'll give you non opiate based pain killers.

In my opinioin, because of the potential for serious drug interaction with pain killers, it's kind of a high risk drug to be taking. It's a serious drug, with minimally proven efficacy for cumplulsive disorders. That's just my opinion - and I'm not a Dr.

--splitimage

[darkrunner]

Thank you very much for your response and the info, Splitimage. I really appreciate it.

I am kind of scared to start taking this, but also scared to question the pdoc.
It's hard to know what is the best decision.....but I'm glad to know your personal experience and your opinions.
Best wishes,
kt