What is Campral?

Alcohol dependence is a severe disease. If you are unable to go on without having an occasional drink during the day, it is time to sit down and think for a while. It is time to admit that you are facing a real problem. Perhaps it is even time to run for your life! Run away from your habit of drinking. Or stand up and fight!

But are you strong enough to overcome it without anyone's help? Alcohol is a strong enemy. Isn't it too strong for you? This battle needs soldiers of great courage. And it takes place inside you - inside your brain. Years of drinking have changed something in your mind. You may think it is just a matter of having moods. But Science says it is Chemistry. We all consist of interacting chemical compounds. Alcohol brings in its own derivatives that poison your body and brain. Your organism manages to keep them off for some time. It has enough strength to defend itself at first. Sometimes this period of successful resistance can last for decades, sometimes one gives in after a couple of years. After all, it comes to the point when your body's chemistry begins to lack something important to go on fighting. You should better get armed.

Campral is a powerful weapon in that struggle against alcohol. Campral affects chemicals in the brain that may become unbalanced in patients with alcohol dependence. It is thought to work by restoring the balance of these chemicals. It may really help you - but you have to help it first, too. Campral helps you not to start drinking again, but you must go through several days without taking any alcohol. You have to clean yourself out of all those poisonous alcohol derivatives we have already spoken about.

Campral is used to help patients with alcohol dependence stay alcohol-free after they have stopped drinking. But even if you start drinking again, do not stop using Campral. It may still help you get back to normal.

Campral is a brand name of acamprosate calcium. The drug's name is sometimes wrongly spelled as Camprel, Campril and Camprol. In the US and Puerto Rico, Campral is manufactured and marketed by Forest Pharmaceuticals, Inc (FPI) which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Forest Laboratories, Inc. In other countries, Campral is manufactured and distributed mainly by a German company Merck KGaA which has its own subsidiaries, such as Merck Sante S.A.S., or Merck Lipha, France.

Outside the US acamprosate calcium is also marketed as Sobrial, Aotal, and Zulex.

Other spelling variations of acamprosate calcium include Acamprosat, Acamprosato and Acamprosatum.