The Sinclair Method (TSM) is an innovative treatment for alcohol use disorder (AUD) that turns the concept of alcohol rehabilitation on its head.
Instead of asking the patient to undergo a detox and abstain from alcohol, The Sinclair Method asks the patient to continue consuming alcohol while taking an opiate blocker like Naltrexone to reduce the urge to drink.
This means you will continue to drink while you are on medication.
This can be a difficult concept to wrap your head around, especially if you have been repeatedly told that to kick a habit you have to go cold turkey.
TSM simply takes a different tack – and the science is completely sound, with the Sinclair Method boasting a 78% long-term abstinence success rate.
How does it work? It basically reteaches the brain not to associate alcohol with pleasure, although there’s a little more to the science than that.
The Science Behind TSM
The science behind TSM is “pharmacological extinction”, which involves un-learning the brain’s associated dependence with alcohol.
This works by using an opiate blocker to reduce or eliminate the person’s craving for alcohol, while the person continues to consume alcohol.
The effect of this is that the brain un-learns dependence on alcohol without the horrible withdrawal symptoms that a normal detox brings with it.
Over time, this returns a person’s craving to a pre-addiction state, allowing them to eventually (and hopefully) become completely abstinent.
By turning habit-forming behaviours into habit-erasing behaviours, TSM reduces a person’s dependence on alcohol over time on a physical and psychological level.
With TSM, the extinction of habit-forming behaviour is our goal. As you may already know, it is impossible to eradicate a behaviour if you continue to reward that behaviour. TSM takes away the reward with medication (Naltrexone or Nalmefene).
How TSM Works
When you are on TSM, you take one Naltrexone or Nalmefene tablet one to two hours before your first drink. The tablet chemically disrupts your body’s behaviour/reward cycle, making you want to drink less instead of more.
Naltrexone and Nalmefene are opiate blockers that disrupt the body’s behaviour/reward cycle. This reward cycle is what makes you want to consume alcohol. By disrupting this, we can significantly reduce your urge to drink.
However, unlike with regular rehab, which involves taking withdrawal medication and undergoing a detox, TSM asks the patient to continue drinking, to transform their habit-forming behaviour into habit-erasing behaviour.
The result is you will want to drink less because it won’t have the same pleasure. Your brain won’t be rewarded, and your habit will reduce.
The Sinclair Method Success Rate
The Sinclair Method has a 78% long-term success rate and approximately one quarter of those on TSM become 100% abstinent.
The results are also completely safe and predictable. Studies have shown that The Sinclair Method is equally effective with or without therapy, and also, that alcohol independence is usually achieved within 3-4 months.
These astounding clinical findings prove that TSM can be a powerful form of rehabilitation for those who suffer from alcohol use disorder (AUD).
The Sinclair Method uses “pharmacological extinction” or “chemical extinction” to treat alcoholism and problem drinking. Most other treatments claim a 5-65% success rate, so TSM has a higher success rate than most treatments.
Of course, patient results vary, and your results may not reflect those of others. What we can say with accuracy is that TSM has helped thousands of people take back control of their addiction – and it could help you do the same.
Click here for the first step for the Sinclair Method
For personalised advice about TSM and to find out whether it could be the right treatment for you, we invite you to call our experts on 0333 444 0315.
