Older Drug Helps Alcoholics Abstain
Motivated Patients Have Many Options, Study Shows
May 2, 2006 -- A widely ignored drug was found to help alcoholics stop drinking, while a newer medication did not seem to be effective in a large, widely anticipated study of treatments for alcohol dependence.
Results from the trial are published in the May 3 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Seeing a doctor or nurse regularly to discuss treatment issues also seemed to help patients on the road to recovery. Researcher Raymond F. Anton, MD, tells WebMD that the study findings show that effective alcohol treatments can be delivered in the general care medical setting.
"I think a lot of physicians think they have nothing to offer alcoholics, and this study shows this is not true," Anton says. "It is clear that motivated people who seek treatment can do well. And there are tools that primary care doctors can use to help them."
As many as 8 million people in the United States meet the diagnostic criteria for alcohol dependence, but only a small percentage of them ever seek treatment, Anton says.
The study did not include patients treated in in-patient hospital or private care settings. It also did not measure the impact of 12-step programs like Alcoholics Anonymous, although participation in these programs was encouraged and 20% to 30% of the study participants did attend AA meetings, Anton says.
Instead, the researchers focused on established outpatient treatments that could be delivered by health care professionals, including behavioral therapists.
All of the roughly 1,400 patients in the study had abstained from alcohol for at least four days when randomly assigned to one of the nine treatment groups encompassing various combinations of drug treatment, medical management, and targeted behavioral therapy.
Eight of the groups received medical management, which included nine brief meetings with a nurse or their doctor to discuss treatment. Some also got more intensive cognitive behavioral therapy, delivered by therapists specially trained in alcoholismalcoholism. The aim of cognitive behavioral therapy was to teach patients specific coping skills to help them. One group got cognitive behavioral therapy alone without any pills or medical management.
Most of the patients were treated with some form of drug therapy. This included either the drug naltrexone (ReVia), which was approved by the FDA for promoting alcohol abstinence in 1994, the drug acamprosate (Campral), approved for the same purpose in 2004, or a combination of the two drugs. Both medications are used to help decrease the urge to drink alcohol.
Older Drug Helps Alcoholics Abstain
Motivated Patients Have Many Options, Study Shows
May 2, 2006 -- A widely ignored drug was found to help alcoholics stop drinking, while a newer medication did not seem to be effective in a large, widely anticipated study of treatments for alcohol dependence.
Results from the trial are published in the May 3 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Seeing a doctor or nurse regularly to discuss treatment issues also seemed to help patients on the road to recovery. Researcher Raymond F. Anton, MD, tells WebMD that the study findings show that effective alcohol treatments can be delivered in the general care medical setting.
"I think a lot of physicians think they have nothing to offer alcoholics, and this study shows this is not true," Anton says. "It is clear that motivated people who seek treatment can do well. And there are tools that primary care doctors can use to help them."
Millions Could Benefit
As many as 8 million people in the United States meet the diagnostic criteria for alcohol dependence, but only a small percentage of them ever seek treatment, Anton says.
The study did not include patients treated in in-patient hospital or private care settings. It also did not measure the impact of 12-step programs like Alcoholics Anonymous, although participation in these programs was encouraged and 20% to 30% of the study participants did attend AA meetings, Anton says.
Instead, the researchers focused on established outpatient treatments that could be delivered by health care professionals, including behavioral therapists.
All of the roughly 1,400 patients in the study had abstained from alcohol for at least four days when randomly assigned to one of the nine treatment groups encompassing various combinations of drug treatment, medical management, and targeted behavioral therapy.
Eight of the groups received medical management, which included nine brief meetings with a nurse or their doctor to discuss treatment. Some also got more intensive cognitive behavioral therapy, delivered by therapists specially trained in alcoholismalcoholism. The aim of cognitive behavioral therapy was to teach patients specific coping skills to help them. One group got cognitive behavioral therapy alone without any pills or medical management.
Most of the patients were treated with some form of drug therapy. This included either the drug naltrexone (ReVia), which was approved by the FDA for promoting alcohol abstinence in 1994, the drug acamprosate (Campral), approved for the same purpose in 2004, or a combination of the two drugs. Both medications are used to help decrease the urge to drink alcohol.
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