Before taking Antabuse or any other prescription medication, it is important to understand both its risks and benefits. Questions that you may want to ask your doctor include how long does Antabuse last, how does the drug interact with your body, and what potential side effects could it cause?
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What Is Antabuse?
To fully appreciate why it is so important to know how long Antabuse lasts, it can be helpful to quickly review what Antabuse is and how it interacts with your body.
Antabuse is the brand name of a prescription medication for people who have alcohol use disorder (AUD), which is the clinical term for alcoholism. The primary active ingredient in Antabuse is disulfiram.
Antabuse’s role in alcoholism treatment is to cause substantial discomfort when a person drinks. By replacing the pleasurable effects of alcohol with extreme physical distress, Antabuse will hopefully diminish the individual’s desire to continue drinking.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) first approved disulfiram in 1951. For more than 40 years, Antabuse was the only FDA-approved medication to help people end their compulsive alcohol use. It has since been joined by two other drugs:
- Naltrexone (which is marketed as Revia and Vivitrol) was approved in 1994.
- Acamprosate (which is sold as Campral) earned approval in 2004.
Today, Antabuse is considered a second-line medication, with most doctors first prescribing naltrexone or acamprosate to patients who have AUD.
Regardless of which medication a person takes, they should also participate in therapy or other programming to help them build the skills that will support their long-term recovery efforts.
How Long Does Antabuse Last?
The question, “How long does Antabuse last?” can have a few answers.
If you are prescribed Antabuse, you will take one tablet per day. A typical starting dose is 500mg each day. After a few weeks at this level, you will likely drop down to a 250mg daily maintenance dose.
Taking this medication every day ensures that you will retain a high level of Antabuse in your system:
- Research indicates that your body will typically absorb about 80%-90% of an Antabuse dose, which will be distributed to your organs and tissues.
- Antabuse is able to cross the blood-brain barrier, which means it will also be present throughout your central nervous system.
Studies suggest that disulfiram has a half-life of about seven hours. It usually takes four to five half-lives before a substance falls below what experts consider to be a clinically significant level. This means that Antabuse can last in your body for about 28-35 hours, or a day and a half at the most.
However, this doesn’t mean that you can skip one day’s dose of Antabuse and then consume alcohol with no effects.
When you ingest Antabuse, your body will convert it into few different substances, including a metabolite called diethyldithiocarbamate (DDTC). The half-life of DDTC is about 15 hours, which means it can take 60-75 hours, or more than three days, before it is fully eliminated from your system.
Even after Antabuse and DDTC have been eliminated, their impact on your body can persist. Some people have felt Antabuse’s effects up to two weeks after the last time they used the medication.
What Does Antabuse Do?
If you are taking Antabuse and you drink alcohol, you will quickly develop a variety of unpleasant symptoms, such as:
- Excessive perspiration
- Headache
- Heart palpitations
- Difficulty breathing
- Vertigo (extreme dizziness)
- Nausea and vomiting
- Muscle weakness
These symptoms result from Antabuse’s interference with how your body processes alcohol.
Here’s a brief overview of what should happen when you drink:
- When your body detects the presence of alcohol, two enzymes – alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) and aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) – begin to metabolize the drug so that it can be safely eliminated.
- ADH temporarily converts alcohol into a substance called acetaldehyde. This substance is toxic. Researchers have identified continued exposure to acetaldehyde as a risk factor for several types of cancer.
- ALDH quickly converts the acetaldehyde into a less dangerous substance called acetate.
- Your body then breaks the acetate molecules into water and carbon dioxide, which it can eliminate in a variety of ways, such as through your urine, perspiration, and breath.
Antabuse prevents ALDH from functioning properly, which means that it can’t convert the acetaldehyde into acetate. The extended presence of toxic acetaldehyde in your system is responsible for the unpleasant effects that you feel when you drink while taking Antabuse.
Is Antabuse Safe?
Antabuse can be safe and effective when you use it as directed by the physician who prescribed it to you. But the medication does pose a risk of adverse effects, some of which can be quite serious.
The most common Antabuse side effects are relatively mild, such as:
- Headache
- Drowsiness
- Exhaustion
- Bad breath
- Metallic taste in your mouth
Less common, but more dangerous, side effects of Antabuse can include:
- Confusion and disorientation
- Severe skin inflammation
- Eye pain and blurred vision
- Liver damage, including hepatitis
- Nerve damage
- Seizure
- Psychosis
If you experience these or any other side effects while taking Antabuse, you should report them to your doctor immediately. Depending on the type and severity of the side effects, your doctor may alter your dosage level or switch you to another medication.
Find Help for Alcohol Addiction in the San Francisco Bay Area
Live Oaks Wellness is a leading provider of life-affirming care for adults who have been struggling with addictions to alcohol and other drugs.
Treatment options at our alcohol rehab near San Francisco include detoxification, residential care, and multiple outpatient programs. At every level, you can expect to receive quality clinical services and comprehensive support from a team of highly skilled professionals.
At Live Oaks Wellness, we understand how devastating untreated alcoholism can be, and we are committed to providing the focused care that can help you build a much healthier and more hopeful life in recovery.
To learn more or to schedule a free assessment, please visit our Admissions page or call us today.
