The Sinclair Method works in two timescales. Day-to-day: did you take the tablet correctly before each session. Month-to-month: is the urge to drink actually fading. Both questions are answered by the data you log along the way. Without a record, you’re guessing on both fronts. With one, the trajectory becomes visible after a few months and the protocol becomes self-evident. This article is part of our Naltrexone hub, the complete guide to using naltrexone for alcohol use disorder.
This article walks through what to track during TSM, how to read your own data over the first 6 months, and how AlcoLog’s specific features map to that work. If you’ve read the Sinclair Method explained and decided to give it a real run, this is how the tracking layer fits in.
# What you actually need to record
Per drinking session, the minimum is:
- Whether you took the tablet (yes / no)
- The time gap between dose and first drink (was it really an hour? Or twenty minutes because you forgot until the last moment?)
- How many drinks you had (so you can see if drinks-per-session shifts over time)
- How long the session ran (so you know whether you needed a redose)
- Optional: the location (home, pub, friend’s house; patterns emerge here)
Five fields per session. Five seconds of effort if it’s quick to log.
What you don’t need to track for TSM specifically: subjective ratings, mood scores, “urge intensity” sliders, what you ate, who you were with. None of these are part of the protocol’s evidence base. The Sinclair Method works because of the dose-drink relationship, not your subjective experience of it. Adding more fields is a recipe for tracking-fatigue and falling off entirely.
The five things above are what the published TSM trial protocols measured. They’re sufficient.
# How to log a session in AlcoLog
The flow:
- Take your naltrexone tablet at the right time. Open AlcoLog’s Medications card, tap Naltrexone, log the dose. The 24-hour time picker stamps it precisely.
- About an hour later, start the session. One tap on the home screen starts the timer. The HH:MM:SS clock ticks while you drink.
- Log each drink as you have it. Pick from the catalogue (273 drinks, 87 size presets) or use the quick-add for “another of the same” if you’re staying with one drink type. Each drink stamps with a timestamp automatically.
- End the session when you stop drinking. One tap. The session moves to your history with all the data preserved.
The cumulative work per session is roughly 20-30 seconds of taps. Less than checking your phone for the time.
# Reading the data over the first month
The first month is the hardest to interpret because your data is sparse and side effects are at their worst (see the Naltrexone side effects guide for what’s normal). What to look for:
Compliance. Of your drinking sessions in the first month, what percentage had a correctly-timed naltrexone dose? Aim for 80%+. Below 50% means you’re not really doing TSM, you’re doing occasional naltrexone, and the timeline assumptions don’t apply.
In AlcoLog, the Medications card shows your last 24h of doses; the session timeline shows your drinks. Cross-referencing the two manually is the easiest way to spot patterns: did you forget to dose on Thursdays specifically? Was Friday-after-work the consistent miss?
Side effects fading. First week: nausea may be daily. Week two: fading. Week three: most people are at baseline. If side effects worsen rather than improve, that’s worth a check-in with your prescriber.
Drinking volume. Probably unchanged in month one. Don’t read into it. The protocol’s behavioural effect doesn’t really show up until weeks 6-12.
# Reading the data at month 3
This is the standard checkpoint where most prescribers want to see progress. Open AlcoLog’s Trends graph, set it to 3 months, look at:
Drinks per session. The expected pattern: gentle downward trend. The COMBINE study and the Sinclair Method’s published outcomes both show a 20-40% reduction in drinks-per-session by month three for compliant patients. If your trend graph shows that, you’re in the expected range. If it’s flat, two possibilities:
- Your compliance has been lower than you think. Cross-check with the medications log.
- You’re a slower responder. Some patients see the change later, around months 4-5.
Session frequency. Less likely to change in month three. Most people drink the same number of times per week throughout the early months and only see frequency drop later as the urge fades.
Total drinks per week. A composite that’s worth watching alongside drinks-per-session. If sessions-per-week is steady but drinks-per-session is down, total drinks will be down too. That’s the protocol working.
In AlcoLog, the Trends graph’s rolling average overlay smooths out the noise of individual sessions. Pick “drinks” as the metric, “3 months” as the range, and look at where the rolling average is now versus where it was at week 1.
# Reading the data at month 6
By month six, the deeper change is usually visible. What to look for:
Sessions-per-week starting to drop. This is the change people notice first in their lives. You used to drink Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday. Now it’s Wednesday and Saturday. The compulsion to drink has eased; the medication is working.
Drinks-per-session continuing to fall. Often around 40-60% lower than baseline by month six.
Sober days starting to appear unprompted. AlcoLog’s calendar heatmap (in the History view) shows tinted intensity per day. By month six, the calendar typically has visible white space where the early months were dense.
The trophy emoji on sober days. AlcoLog adds a 🏆 to any sober day inside a streak, and a star for streaks of 2 or more. By month six, those start clustering.
This is also when most prescribers will reassess and discuss continuation. Bring your AlcoLog data: the CSV export of your sessions is on Pro (last 10 free), or PDF reports for a printable version. Most prescribers haven’t seen this kind of detailed self-reported data before and find it useful.
# Reading the data at month 12 and beyond
By a year, three patterns emerge:
Pattern A: substantial reduction. Sessions are roughly half what they were at baseline. Drinks-per-session are roughly half. Total alcohol consumption is roughly a quarter of baseline. The drinking still happens, but it’s no longer compulsive. Most TSM patients land here.
Pattern B: gradual abstinence. A subset of TSM patients find that as the urge fades, they stop entirely without that being the original goal. The medication is no longer reinforcing anything because there’s no drinking to reinforce. Some stay on the tablet as insurance; some discontinue.
Pattern C: stabilised low-level use. Drinking is moderate and consistent. Not improving anymore, but also not problematic. Some patients stay here indefinitely, taking naltrexone before each session as a maintenance tool.
All three are reasonable outcomes. The protocol isn’t designed to push you to one specifically.
# What to share with your doctor
At follow-ups, useful things to bring:
- Compliance percentage. “I took the tablet correctly before X% of my drinking sessions over the past month.”
- Drinks-per-session trend. Either the AlcoLog trends graph (screenshot) or the CSV export.
- Side-effect summary. What you noticed, when it faded.
- Any concerns. Missed doses, forgotten patterns, sessions that drifted longer than expected.
A 15-minute prescriber appointment is enough time to cover all of this if you have the data ready. Without it, you’re paraphrasing from memory and the conversation tends to be vague.
# Why tracking helps even if the trajectory is good
Even when TSM is clearly working, the daily compliance is what makes month 6 happen at month 6 rather than month 9. Tracking provides three specific value points:
- Catches drift early. A week of forgotten doses is easy to miss in memory but obvious on the dose log. You can adjust before drift becomes a pattern.
- Provides evidence to yourself. The first 6-8 weeks feel like nothing is happening. The data shows otherwise: even small reductions are visible in week-by-week comparisons. This is morale support during the long flat stretch.
- Removes the question of “is it working?” You’re not guessing. You’re reading the chart.
# How AlcoLog helps you track this
AlcoScore deliberately excludes medication use from its scoring, so your TSM compliance informs you privately rather than feeding into a public-facing score. The app’s view: medication is a tool you choose to use, not a behaviour the app should grade you on. Your dose log informs you, not your score.
All your data stays on the device. There’s no account, no email, no login. CSV export of your sessions is free; Pro adds unlimited CSV and PDF reports if you want to share a printout with your prescriber.
