Take Nalmefene or You're Fired!

Through their Employee Assistance Programs [EAP], many employers deal with problem drinkers by mandating Alcoholics Anonymous [AA] or that the worker be fired. That might change, reports Bloomberg Business Week, if the new pharmaceutical nalmefene lives up to what its manufacturer H. Lundbeck A/S claims.

Nalmefene blocks brain signals that register pleasure in ingesting alcohol, says Lundbeck. As a result, the drinker could have one serving of alcohol, minus the problematic craving to have a lot more than one.

This approach to preventing problem drinking differs from that of AA, which requires total abstinence from alcohol. And that might make all the difference in the willingness of impaired employees to accept their employer's intervention.