fighting fire with fire

Would you be excited by the prospect of keeping 93% of convicted drug offenders from re-offending?

Would you be less excited if you knew it took another drug?

Today Joliff has more than 90 days clean and sober. She credits an experimental treatment program, called Prometa, that offers addicts a glimmer of hope through a combination of an antihistamine, a sedative and an antidepressant that stops the drug cravings.

Joliff was among 40 people — all of whom were stuck in the Pierce County drug-court system because they couldn't stay away from drugs — who were given a chance to try a new treatment for addiction through a pilot program.

Pierce County Alliance, the county's treatment center, found that 92.5 percent of the participants remained drug-free in the first three months of the trial — while 98 percent of the weekly random urine analyses tested negative for substance abuse. The relapse rate in drug court is about 50 percent....

Prometa is based on three medicines that were originally approved by the FDA for other maladies — the antihistamine hydroxyzine; flumezanil, which counteracts the effects of sedatives; and the anticonvulsant Neurontin — but which together have shown great promise for addicts....

Of the three pharmaceutical drugs that are administered during the treatment, one is given orally and two are administered intravenously once a day for three days. A second cycle of infusions is administered about three weeks later.

The treatment is finite, not habit-forming and shows few side effects, Torrington said.

The participants were allowed to choose Prometa. If its initial success carries on for the long term, you'd have to imagine that policymakers will consider making it mandatory, and exploring its use in other circumstances--who knows how it might affect sex addicts or kleptomaniacs.