Our staff will watch you consume your antabuse and verify the time and date you consumed your dose. Antabuse (disulfuram) is an alcohol antagonist and can only be consumed pursuant to a doctor's prescription. If you are in need of antabuse monitoring please contact a local Washintgon STOP office today. Click here for STOP locations in Washington State.

What is Antabuse?

Antabuse (Disulfiram) is a drug given to alcoholics that produces adverse effects such as nausea, vomiting, dizziness, flushing, and tachycardia if alcohol is consumed. The drug's effectiveness is largely due to its role as a deterrent.

Under normal metabolism, alcohol is broken down in the liver by the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase to acetaldehyde, which is then converted by the enzyme acetaldehyde dehydrogenase to the harmless acetic acid. Disulfiram blocks this reaction at the intermediate stage by blocking the enzyme acetaldehyde dehydrogenase. After alcohol intake under the influence of disulfiram, the concentration of acetaldehyde in the blood may be 5 to 10 times higher than that found during metabolism of the same amount of alcohol alone.

As acetaldehyde is one of the major causes of the symptoms of a "hangover" this produces immediate and severe negative reaction to alcohol intake. Some 5-10 minutes after alcohol intake, the patient may experience the effects of a severe hangover for a period of 30 minutes up to several hours.

Symptoms include flushing of the skin, accelerated heart rate, shortness of breath, nausea, and vomiting.