Disulfiram is an aid in the management of selected chronic alcohol patients who want to remain in a state of enforced sobriety so that supportive and psychotherapeutic treatment may be applied to best advantage.Disulfiram is not a cure for alcoholism.

When used alone, without proper motivation and supportive therapy, it is unlikely that it will have any substantive effect on the drinking pattern of the chronic alcoholic.

Patients who are receiving or have recently received metronidazole, paraldehyde, alcohol, or alcohol-containing preparations, e.g., cough syrups, tonics and the like, should not be given disulfiram.Disulfiram is contraindicated in the presence of severe myocardial disease or coronary occlusion, psychoses, and hypersensitivity to disulfiram or to other thiuram derivatives used in pesticides and rubber vulcanization.

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Cardiomyopathies -- condition in which there is a deviation from or interruption of the normal structure or function of the myocardium, the middle and thickest layer of the heart wall, composed of heart muscle.

CORONARY OCCLUSION -- Complete blockage of blood flow through one of the CORONARY ARTERIES, usually from CORONARY ATHEROSCLEROSIS.

Hypersensitivity -- Altered reactivity to an antigen, which can result in pathologic reactions upon subsequent exposure to that particular antigen.

Disulfiram should never be administered to a patient when he is in a state of alcohol intoxication, or without his full knowledge.The physician should instruct relatives accordingly.