A new study published by the scientific journal Addiction has found no reliable evidence for using nalmefene, naltrexone, acamprosate, baclofen or topiramate to control drinking in patients with alcohol dependence or alcohol use disorder. At best, some treatments showed low to medium efficacy in reducing drinking, but those findings were from studies with a high risk of bias. None demonstrated any benefit on health outcomes.
The study pooled the results from 32 double-blind randomised controlled trials representing 6,036 patients, published between 1994 and 2015. The studies compared the effects of oral nalmefene (n=9), naltrexone (n=14), acamprosate (n=1), baclofen (n=4) and topimarate (n=4) against placebo.
Many of the studies provided unreliable results due to risk of bias (potential exaggeration of the effects of the drug). Twenty-six studies (81%) showed an unclear or high risk of incomplete outcome data due to the large number of withdrawals. Seventeen studies (53%) showed an unclear or a high risk of selective outcome reporting, as they did not include a protocol registration number, which would allow another researcher to check whether all outcomes were reported.
Clément Palpacuer, et. al. Pharmacologically controlled drinking in the treatment of alcohol dependence or alcohol use disorders: a systematic review with direct and network meta-analyses on nalmefene, naltrexone, acamprosate, baclofen and topiramate. Addiction, 2017; DOI: 10.1111/add.13974
Back to the drawing board.
(Score: 3, Informative) by KiloByte on Friday September 22 2017, @06:26PM (1 child)
What's wrong with good old Esperal implants? Unlike oral tablets (as administered in Western countries) which the patient will for obvious reasons strongly avoid, implants (used to be popular in Poland in commie times) leave no way around.
Unlike a carrot method (drugs that make you good despite lack of alcohol) Esperal works as a stick: ingest alcohol and you'll feel really bad (it's said it's like an extreme hang-over). Yes, if you drink a large amount of alcohol anyway it's likely to be fatal, but that's why the patient must be well-informed.
Ceterum censeo systemd esse delendam.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 23 2017, @06:23AM
(also known as Antabuse)