New York, Oct 10 (IANS) A drug used to treat migraines may help alcoholics control their dependency on drinks, says a new study.
Scientists at the University of Virginia conducted a clinical trial of the drug topiramate and found that it was significantly effective in curbing alcohol dependence.
Topiramate was previously approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of migraines and is manufactured by New Jersey based Ortho-McNeil Neurologics.
The drug is not currently approved for the treatment of alcohol dependence.
During the 14-week study, 371 male and female alcoholics were randomly selected to take topiramate (up to 300 mg/day) or a placebo.
All of them had a weekly 15-minute intervention with a trained nurse to enhance adherence to the medication and treatment regimen, reported the online edition of Newswise wire.
“Our finding in this national study was that topiramate is a safe and highly efficacious medicine that can be paired with a 15-minute brief intervention by health practitioners who are not addiction specialists,” said lead researcher Bankole Johnson.
“Topiramate has emerged as a promising treatment for people with alcohol dependence,” Johnson said. “Community practice settings in the US and in many parts of the world, therefore, have the potential to use this combination treatment,” he added.
“One of our next steps is to directly study topiramate’s efficacy in treating alcoholics within community practice settings,” Johnson said in the study published in the October issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
There are three approved medications currently available in the US to treat alcoholism — disulfiram, acamprosate and naltrexone.