After 7 years of unsuccessful treatment for his alcoholism, this cardiologist had the idea to test on him baclofen, an old drug used for muscle spasms. What had made him indifferent to alcohol. Since then, he has devoted his life to validating this treatment. And he spared neither his time nor his trouble to help the sick around him.
Established in New York in the 1980s, associate professor of medicine at the prestigious Cornell University, Oliver Ameisen begins to drink to calm his anxiety at social gatherings. But little by little, he becomes addicted to alcohol. The brilliant cardiologist, also an excellent pianist, is no more than a shadow of himself. Until the day when, after many setbacks, he decides to experiment on him with a treatment used until then in neurology: baclofen. The very high doses that he will end up taking will lead him one fine morning to an incredible conclusion: he is no longer tempted by the bottle of whiskey. He doesn’t feel like drinking anymore.
So begins, for him, a long road to recognize the relevance of “his” treatment. Olivier Ameisen publishes articles in the medical press, a book entitled “the last glass”, which makes him known. Articles are published in the American press, the first in France is published in Top Santé in September 2005. Above all, it calls for therapeutic trials to validate its approach, which confuses many alcoholologists. It will have partly achieved its goal. While several trials are underway to clarify the indications and limits of baclofen, a temporary authorization for its use in alcoholism was announced in June.
