“Temposil” A New Drug in the Treatment of Alcoholism

Abstract

In the last decade the use of disulfiram (Antabuse) has considerably altered the treatment of chronic alcoholism. However, unpleasant side-effects of headache, metallic taste in the mouth, abdominal discomfort and impotence are found in patients on maintenance treatment with this drug and deters them from taking it (4, 10). Alcohol-disulfiram reactions can be accompanied by cardiac complications or sudden death (9, 11). Despite these difficulties alcoholics who take disulfiram regularly have better abstinence records than those who do not (15). Many reasons may be postulated for these results, but we have regarded the use of disulfiram as a means of providing a period of “forced” abstinence while the alcoholic is readjusting to the demands of resuming his job, family relations, etc. During this time some insight and understanding of the nature of his difficulties may be established. The remainder of this paper describes the investigation of a new substance, Temposil, which produces a similar effect to disulfiram.