Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Disulfiram |
DisulfiramNoun1. A drug (trade name Antabuse) used in the treatment of alcoholism; causes nausea and vomiting if alcohol is ingested. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
"Disulfiram" is a common misspelling or typo for: disaffirm. |
| Domain | Definition |
Health | A carbamate derivative used as an alcohol deterrent. It is a relatively nontoxic substance when administered alone, but markedly alters the intermediary metabolism of alcohol. When alcohol is ingested after administration of disulfiram, blood acetaldehyde concentrations are increased, followed by flushing, systemic vasodilation, respiratory difficulties, nausea, hypotension, and other symptoms (acetaldehyde syndrome). It acts by inhibiting aldehyde dehydrogenase. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
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.
Disulfiram should not be taken if alcohol has been consumed in the last 12 hours. There is no tolerance to dsulfirma: the longer it is taken, the stronger its effects. As disulfiram is absorbed slowly through the digestive tract and eliminated slowly by the body the effects may last for up to 2 weeks after the initial intake. Clearly, patients must be fully informed about the disulfiram-alcohol reaction.
The drug's action was discovered by accident in the 1940s in the Danish drug company Medicinalco: workers testing the substance, which was intended to treat parasitic diseases, on themselves reported severe symptoms after alcohol consumption.
One weakness with Disulfiran and similar treatments is that if not taken under supervision an alcoholic will not stick to the treatment, since it is easier to give up the drug than alcohol. Even when strictly taken the negative effects will rarely break the drinking patterns of a chronic alcoholic. For these reasons disulfiram is not in itself a cure for alcoholism and is usually only indicated for select patients who wish to remain in an enforced state of sobriety during other forms of treatment, such as support groups and psychotherapy.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Disulfiram."
Synonym: DisulfiramSynonym: Antabuse (n). (additional references) |
Crosswords: Disulfiram |
| Specialty definitions using "disulfiram": Ditiocarb. (references) |
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Those who also abuse alcohol receive clinic-monitored disulfiram (Antabuse) therapy. (references) | |
Disulfiram, a medication that has been used to treat alcoholism, has also been shown, in clinical studies, to be effective in reducing cocaine abuse. (references) | ||
Naltrexone, which targets the brain's reward circuits, is the first medication approved to help maintain sobriety after detoxification from alcohol since the approval of disulfiram (Antabuse?/sup>) in 1949. The use of acamprosate, an anticraving medication that is widely used in Europe, is based on neuroscience research. (references) | ||
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "disulfiram": disulfiram-ethanol. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
disulfiram | 33 |
disulfiram reaction | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "disulfiram"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | disulfiram. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | disulfiramum, disulfiram. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | disulfirami. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
French | disulfirame. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
German | Disulfiramum, Disulfiram. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | disulfiramum, disulfiram. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | isulfiramday disulfirame. (various references) disulfiram. (various references) disulfiram. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "disulfiram": disulfirams. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-d-f-i-i-l-m-r-s-u" | |
-1 letter: fluidrams. | |
-2 letters: fluidram. | |
-3 letters: armfuls, armsful, dualism, fulmars, midairs, miladis, misdial, mislaid, radiums, silurid, similar, simular. | |
-4 letters: aidful, aimful, almuds, armful, disarm, dismal, drails, dulias, famuli, faulds, flairs, fluids, frails, frauds, fulmar, iliads, lairds, larums, liards, lidars, miauls, midair, miladi, mudras, murals, murids, radium, radius, sialid, sulfid, surimi, urials. | |
-5 letters: alifs, almud, alums, amids, amirs. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-d-f-i-i-l-m-r-s-u" | |
+1 letter: disulfirams. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)44 69 73 75 6C 66 69 72 61 6D |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references)-.. .. ... ..- .-.. ..-. .. .-. .- -- |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01000100 01101001 01110011 01110101 01101100 01100110 01101001 01110010 01100001 01101101 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)D i s u l f i r a m |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0044 0069 0073 0075 006C 0066 0069 0072 0061 006D |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)38758587787275846779 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Quotations: Non-fiction 6. Expressions 7. Expressions: Internet 8. Translations: Modern | 9. Derivations 10. Anagrams 11. Orthography 12. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
