A DECISION is to be taken today on whether a drug designed to help people with a drink problem will be made available on the NHS.
The Scottish Medicines Association will rule on whether to approve the drug Nalmefene.
A decision on the drug is also pending in Wales, but Scotland will be the first part of the UK to make a ruling on the drug that its supporters believe could have a real impact on alcohol addiction.
It is designed for patients who have alcohol dependency but do not need to abstain completely from alcohol.
"There is a group of people who are dependent on alcohol who have not reached the point that medically that they have to be advised to abstain," Professor Jonathan Chick, consultant psychiatrist and honorary professor, Queen Margaret University Hospital, Edinburgh. "They want to reduce their drinking to a safe level."
Professor Chick thinks that if the drug is approved today it might encourage people with a problem to consult their doctor. "They don't come seeking help [now] because they see it as meaning total abstinence," he told the Herald. But he believes if Nalmefene is accepted by the SMA any resulting publicity will make people think again. "If it's approved I forsee that people hearing of it will go to their GP and discuss it."
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