Saturday, December 22, 2007

Anticonvulsants for Alcoholism

Several studies studies support the use of the anticonvulsant Topiramate (Topamax) for alcohol dependence.
A new study supports the use of Gabapentin (Neurontin) in the early post-withdrawal period:
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Dec 17 - The anticonvulsant gabapentin reduces alcohol consumption and craving during treatment for alcohol dependence, Brazilian researchers report in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry for November.
Dr. Fernando A. Furieri, at the Vitoria Municipal Addiction Treatment Center, and Dr. Ester M. Nakamura-Palacios, at the Federal University of Espirito Santo in Vitoria, conducted a randomized, double-blind trial involving 60 subjects, whose average consumption exceeded 35 drinks per week.
After a 7-day treatment for acute withdrawal, subjects were randomly assigned to gabapentin up to 600 mg/day, or placebo for 28 days. Thirty-nine patients had used diazepam during the acute phase; 15 in the placebo group and 13 in the gabapentin continued to do so during the trial phase.
The number of drinks per day, per week, and over the 4-week course of treatment had declined significantly more in the gabapentin group than in the placebo group. Gabapentin was also associated with fewer heavy drinking days and more days of abstinence. The authors note that 20 subjects in the gabapentin group and 13 in the placebo group maintained complete abstinence.
According to scores on the Obsessive Compulsive Drinking Scale, craving for alcohol was also reduced significantly more by gabapentin.
"Gabapentin has shown great potential in the treatment of alcohol dependence and withdrawal syndromes," either as monotherapy or as an add-on pharmacotherapy, the authors conclude.
J Clin Psychiatry 2007;68:1691-1700.

Non-anticonvulsants useful for the treatment of alcohol dependence include antabuse, naltrexone, and acamprosate.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello Dr. Micheal,

I always like your insightful post or new studies...thank you for sharing... I really appreciate your effort, please accept ma large applause...

Michael Rack, MD said...

thank you

My Heart On My Sleeve said...

I am so lame, I haven't been on blogger since I started school back in April/May. I am going to post a follow up on the meme you tagged me on back in June. Seems like I will spend the rest of my time catching up on all my medical friends posts and looking for work. I look forward to catching up on your blog!! BTW, we made it into the nursing program.

Anonymous said...

hi gone through u r site. quite interesting. forwarded to my friends.
-----------
dhananjay
Suffering from an addiction. This website has a lot of great resources and treatment centers.
http://www.treatmentcenters.org

Anonymous said...

Your site is very interesting. I gathered a lot of information from your site.This site will help you in my future.Keep on Rocking....
http://www.alcoholabusecenter.com
---------------------------------------
pamban
Alcohol abuse affects millions. This site has a lot of useful information.

Unknown said...

So many people habituating Alcohol. Some Alcohols are physically addictive which means they actually change brain chemistry.Finally it cause sudden death for them. So its a good idea to take Anticonvulsants for alcoholism.
================
george
Alcoholism Treatment

Anonymous said...

Very nice.

http://www.alcoholtreatmentclinics.com

Anonymous said...

A片,A片,成人網站,成人漫畫,色情,情色網,情色,AV,AV女優,成人影城,成人,色情A片,日本AV,免費成人影片,成人影片,SEX,免費A片,A片下載,免費A片下載,做愛,情色A片,色情影片,H漫,A漫,18成人

a片,色情影片,情色電影,a片,色情,情色網,情色,av,av女優,成人影城,成人,色情a片,日本av,免費成人影片,成人影片,情色a片,sex,免費a片,a片下載,免費a片下載

情趣用品,情趣用品,情趣,情趣,情趣用品,情趣用品,情趣,情趣,情趣用品,情趣用品,情趣,情趣

A片,A片,A片下載,做愛,成人電影,.18成人,日本A片,情色小說,情色電影,成人影城,自拍,情色論壇,成人論壇,情色貼圖,情色,免費A片,成人,成人網站,成人圖片,AV女優,成人光碟,色情,色情影片,免費A片下載,SEX,AV,色情網站,本土自拍,性愛,成人影片,情色文學,成人文章,成人圖片區,成人貼圖

情色,AV女優,UT聊天室,聊天室,A片,視訊聊天室


UT聊天室,視訊聊天室,辣妹視訊,視訊辣妹,情色視訊,視訊,080視訊聊天室,視訊交友90739,美女視訊,視訊美女,免費視訊聊天室,免費視訊聊天,免費視訊,視訊聊天室,視訊聊天,視訊交友網,視訊交友,情人視訊網,成人視訊,哈啦聊天室,UT聊天室,豆豆聊天室,
聊天室,聊天,色情聊天室,色情,尋夢園聊天室,聊天室尋夢園,080聊天室,080苗栗人聊天室,柔情聊天網,小高聊天室,上班族聊天室,080中部人聊天室,中部人聊天室,成人聊天室,成人

eda said...

情趣按摩棒,自慰套,角色扮演,按摩棒,跳蛋,跳蛋,
情趣,情趣,角色扮演服,吊帶襪,丁字褲,情趣用品,跳蛋,男女,
潤滑液,SM,內衣,性感內衣,自慰器,充氣娃娃,AV,
按摩棒,電動按摩棒,飛機杯,視訊,自慰套,自慰套,情趣用品,情趣內衣,
部落格,