![]() ![]() Russian chat rooms now buzz with discussions about its fallibility, and Web sites offer methods to test whether a coded alcoholic has been administered a placebo or a real drug that can cause violent illness when mixed with alcohol. But some doctors fear that the increasing sophistication of the population and the use of the technique against other addictions, such as gambling, are draining the method of its essential ingredient: the power of suggestion. In the last 20 years, hundreds of thousands of people in Russia and other countries of the former Soviet Union have been coded against the desire to drink. "I believed him, because we had all heard stories about people who were coded and died when they drank," said Svetlana, who didn't want her last name published because she said her co-workers didn't know she was an alcoholic. "And if you drink in that time, you will die." He insisted that she sign a release form saying he would bear no responsibility for her death should she drink within 12 months. "I've coded you for a year," he said, according to Svetlana. The injected medicine, the doctor said, would stay in her system. She became dizzy and had difficulty breathing before the doctor stepped in with some oxygen to revive her. Before the drug kicked in, the doctor gave her a little vodka to taste. ![]() In Svetlana's case, that was induced by mild hypnosis followed by injection of a temporary but powerful drug that could attack her respiratory system. Dating to the former Soviet Union, it involves the manipulation of the alcoholic's psyche to create the belief that alcohol equals death. Three months earlier, Svetlana had been "coded" - a catchall term for a Russian method of treating alcoholism that essentially involves scaring the living daylights out of the alcoholic. "I was absolutely sure something terrible would happen to me," she recalled. ![]()
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