A Christchurch specialist says that majority of the alcoholics are being refused access to drug cure due to the disgrace appended to their illness.

National Addiction Centre Director, Doug Sellman said that a drug known as naltrexone had been revealed to cut the reversion rate for alcoholics by half, but difficulties in recommending it intended that it was not available to nearly all alcoholics.

Pharmacy statistics reveal that there were around 1500 recommendations for naltrexone in each of the preceding two years. Naltrexone was at first financed in 2004, when there were 582 prescriptions for it.

Sellman said that there were 120,000 New Zealanders with alcohol addiction who can probably derive benefit from the anti-craving medicine, but only around 1% had access to it.

He said that only physicians practicing in drug health centers can prescribe naltrexone, nearly 50 people countrywide. Patients should be registered with Community Alcohol and Drug Services and must be in all-inclusive programs.

Sellman added, "We are not seeing the mild to moderate cases who I think could really benefit from this medication".

By decreasing longings, naltrexone could be utilized with persons who were not yet determined to relinquish the bad habit, but comprehended that they had a difficulty, enabling people to go "warm turkey" instead of "cold turkey".