Low Dose Naltreone (LDN) - The (Sadly) Neglected Drug
There have been many incidents where the NHS have been accused of with-holding treatments from patients which are known to be effective purely on grounds of cost. However, in this case, there is a treatment which has a growing body of evidence to it's efficacy which is being largely ignored by the NHS and which has the potential to save money rather than cost money.
This treatment is called Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN).
There a number of web sites on the internet about this drug but in summary :
LDN is small amount of Naltrexone, a drug which is commonly used to assist detoxification in drug and alcohol addicts.
The difference being that LDN is generally prescribed as 1/50th of the dose of Naltrexone.
The mechanism of LDN's working is not well understood but it is thought to assist in regulating the immune system.
LDN has been successfully used in the treatment of a huge range of conditions from Crohn's disease, to Multiple Sclerosis (MS), from fertility to Cancer.
Partly because of this, many people assume LDN is some kind of 'magic bullet' 'wonder drug' that is too good to be true (However, for example, note that steroids can be used to treat a huge number of conditions also, so this is not a valid refutation).
Naltrexone is not licensed to be used as LDN in the US or UK. This is partly because there have not been many studies or clinical trials done on it.
Why? It is hard not to come to the conclusion that the reason, or at least a large part of the reason, is that there is not a lot of money to be made by pharmaceutical companies from LDN. Naltrexone is already out of patent and, at present it is not possible to re-patent a drug for a different use.
In the current economic climate this is an even more pressing issue than ever before. How can we afford to ignore a treatment, with no known side-effects, which costs around 20 USD or 25 GBP per month per patient in favour of long-term use of powerful steroids and immuno-suppresant drugs with many side effects which can cost thousands of pounds per year per patient?
At the very least we need large scale clinical trials of this drug right now.
There is a petition at the Number 10 web site to push for this to happen in the UK, you can find it - here.
A list of other web sites on this drug and issues surrounding it follows.
Please take some time to read up on this and pass it on to anybody you know, especially those who suffer from auto-immune dieases like IBD (Ulcerative Colitis, Crohn's), Rheumatoid Arthritis, Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Cronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS)/ Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME), Parkinson's Disease, Fibromyalgia, etc.
http://ldnnow.co.uk (Promoting the use of LDN in the UK)
http://googleldn.com (Joseph Wouk's book on his beating progressive MS with LDN)
http://glasgowldn2009.com (European LDN Conference 2009, just passed).
http://essentialhealthclinic.com (Private Glasgow clinic which prescribes LDN)
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