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The consumption of alcohol affects 400 million people worldwide, where it is responsible for 7% of deaths. Treatment success rates in this field remain limited. Only 15% of those who need treatment get it. Despite treatment, alcohol intake reoccurs in up to 90% of the cases. The use of disulfiram in preventing alcohol reoccurrence is attributed to its unique mechanism of action as an aversive agent, which causes the patient to experience unpleasant physical symptoms when they consume alcohol. The objective of this study is to confirm and illustrate the efficacy of disulfiram in combination with non‐pharmacological intervention for persons with severe AUD. Clinical data from 45 patients of an outpatient treatment programme, including the application of disulfiram (2011–2023) were analysed to assess abstinence rates, craving impact, and demographic factors. Moreover, our analyses aimed to identify predictors and moderators of continuous abstinence duration. The study cohort comprised patients with severe AUD and high rates of comorbidities, the majority of which were affective disorders. During treatment, 50% of patients remained abstinent for at least 1 year. No significant differences were identified in craving, sex or comorbidities compared with those who experienced a return to substance use after treatment initiation. Disulfiram underlined its efficacy and tolerability as an adjunct to addiction‐focused treatment in a typical clinical cohort of patients severely affected by AUD. Moreover, our analyses align with previous research indicating that disulfiram appears to allow patients with AUD to resist craving episodes, therefore avoiding impulsive reoccurrences of alcohol intake. Disulfiram is experiencing a renaissance in the treatment of persons with severe alcohol use disorder due to its unique mechanism of action on the one hand and the lack of effective pharmacotherapeutic innovations on the other. Our study supports the efficacy and tolerability of disulfiram when prescribed as an adjunct to addiction‐focused treatment. Almost all of the 45 severely and mostly comorbidly affected individuals studied benefited from this therapeutic approach, with 50% remaining abstinent for at least 1 year.

Healable materials could play an important role in reducing the environmental footprint of our modern technological society through extending the life cycles of consumer products and constructions. However, as most healing processes are carried out by heat alone, the ability to heal damage generally kills the parent material’s thermal and mechanical properties. Here we present a dynamic covalent polymer network whose thermal healing ability can be switched ‘on’ and ‘off’ on demand by light, thereby providing local control over repair while retaining the advantageous macroscopic properties of static polymer networks. We employ a photoswitchable furan-based crosslinker, which reacts with short and mobile maleimide-substituted poly(lauryl methacrylate) chains forming strong covalent bonds while simultaneously allowing the reversible, spatiotemporally resolved control over thermally induced de- and re-crosslinking. We reason that our system can be adapted to more complex materials and has the potential to impact applications in responsive coatings, photolithography and microfabrication. Healable materials are typically repaired by heat, which can affect the properties of the substance. Here the authors report a dynamic covalent polymer network in which light can switch the healing abilities on or off, allowing healing at defined locations without affecting the polymer as a whole.