This summary was prepared by the John M. Eisenberg Center for Clinical Decisions and Communications Science at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX. It was written by Amelia Williamson Smith, M.S., Thomas Kosten, M.D., and Michael Fordis, M.D. People with alcohol use disorder reviewed this summary. Other things, such as having low self-esteem or being impulsive, may raise the risk of alcohol use disorder. Seek out friends, family members, and healthcare professionals who help you stay on your new path. §—Antidepressants increased the risk of suicidal thinking and behavior (suicidality) in children, adolescents, and young adults in short-term studies of major depressive disorder and other psychiatric disorders.

• It targets the neurotransmitters GABA and glutamate to decrease the intensity of alcohol’s irregulating effects.
• Medication use with hazardous drinkers who may not be alcohol dependent may promote reduced drinking and likely will reduce the burden of excessive drinking.
• Topiramate, an anticonvulsant, is hypothesized to have beneficial effects on drinking by facilitating functioning of the neurotransmitter γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and antagonizing glutamate activity.
• The standard dose is 50 mg daily, but a multisite study demonstrated that 100 mg daily also was effective when combined with medical management (Anton et al. 2006).
• In 1982, the French company Laboratoires Meram developed acamprosate for the treatment of alcohol dependence.

Naltrexone, like Acamprosate, blocks the euphoric feelings one gets from consuming alcohol. Taking this regularly after detox can stop the “high” experience of alcohol if they relapse, disassociating the feelings of positivity and alcohol. This lures some people to abuse this shortcut to happiness, which eventually builds into a dependency and addiction. Prescribed after alcohol has been purged from the body, Acamprosate is used to fight the urge to drink after detox.

Who should not receive VIVITROL?

Sandra Lamb is a freelance science and health care journalist and author of books including How to Write It and Writing Well for Business Success. Some may view binge-drinking as harmless because the habit is widespread and a low percentage of binge drinkers are dependent on alcohol, according to experts. Always consult your healthcare provider https://goodmenproject.com/everyday-life-2/top-5-tips-to-consider-when-choosing-a-sober-house-for-living/ to ensure the information displayed on this page applies to your personal circumstances. IM administration of Vivitrol reduces first-pass hepatic metabolism as compared with oral naltrexone. Shortly thereafter, the FDA approved disulfiram to treat alcoholism. It was first manufactured by Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories under the brand name Antabuse.

‡—Good evidence to support use in patients with alcohol use disorder. Integrated treatment also helps address co-occurring disorders, trauma, family therapy, and more to provide a whole-patient approach. Most importantly, patients will work closely with their primary therapist and a physician to monitor their progress throughout treatment, make necessary adjustments, and further support the individual. These hangover-like effects typically begin 10 minutes once alcohol enters the body and lasts for an hour or longer.

Acamprosate (Campral)

Prazosin, an α-1 adrenergic antagonist that is effective in treating posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), has shown preliminary efficacy in a small pilot study with 24 alcohol-dependent patients without PTSD (Simpson et al. 2009). The purpose of these therapies is to arm individuals with the coping skills and resources they need to stay sober. While medications help reduce cravings, therapy and peer support allows patients to learn about why they abuse alcohol in the first place and how to cope in healthy ways. Kudzu is an ancient Chinese herbal supplement that is said to reduce alcohol cravings. It is the only natural supplement that is recognized by the National Institute for Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

Talk to your healthcare provider about naloxone, a medicine that is available to patients for the emergency treatment of an opioid overdose. There were 53 patients who had stopped drinking alcohol completely one week prior to their first injection. Among this group, 41% of patients who received VIVITROL did not drink any alcohol throughout the study compared to 17% of those who received placebo. Dr. Witkiewitz said that two months ago she was supervising a patient she thought would benefit from naltrexone. But she said that the patient’s primary care doctor mistakenly believed that prescribing the medication required additional training in addiction medicine and refused to write a prescription. Researchers agree that while there is no one-size-fits-all approach to treating alcohol disorders, naltrexone and other approved medications are vastly underused.

Medications for the Treatment of AUD

Initially, disulfiram was given in larger dosages to produce aversion conditioning to alcohol by making the patients very sick if they drank. Later, after many reported severe reactions (including some deaths), Antabuse was administered in smaller dosages to support alcohol abstinence. With less than one percent of those seeking help for alcohol dependence receiving a prescription, medication is underutilized. Medication for alcoholism can offer patients an advantage for their recovery, especially in a real-world setting.” When you use alcohol and narcotics, parts of your brain make you feel pleasure and intoxication.

Unhealthy alcohol use, which includes the spectrum of drinking behaviors and consequences ranging from risky use to problem drinking, along with alcohol abuse and alcohol dependence (Saitz 2005), has been linked to a multitude of health and social problems. Unhealthy alcohol use accounts for an estimated 85,000 deaths at an economic cost of $185 billion annually in the United States (Harwood 2000). Beyond this, numerous medical problems, such as liver disease, neurologic problems, and malignancies, as well as behavioral dysfunction resulting in employment and legal problems are directly attributable to alcohol. Treatment for alcohol use disorder may include talk therapy (also called “psychotherapy”), support groups, medicines, or a combination of treatments.

Alcohol Treatment Medications

During the alcohol detoxification process, long-acting benzodiazepines such as Valium and Librium are often used to help mitigate the withdrawal symptoms. Because benzodiazepines work on the same receptors of the brain as alcohol, these drugs are often administered during the sober house acute detoxification phase. Oftentimes, the individual is immediately given the drug to mitigate the dangerous withdrawal symptoms of alcoholism and then slowly tapered off. Typically, benzodiazepines are only administered during the initial alcohol detoxification phase.

Your health care provider can help you figure out if one of these medicines is right for you. They are not addictive, so you don’t have to worry about trading one addiction for another. This is just like taking medicines to manage a chronic disease such as asthma or diabetes. One is cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), which focuses on the relationships among thoughts, feelings, and behaviors to help manage urges and triggers. This therapy can also address co-occurring mental health conditions such as anxiety or depression. The severity of AUD ranges from mild to severe, and symptoms have the potential for recurrence and remission.

Drug shows promise for treating alcoholism

In a 6-month trial, 64 percent of participants received all 6 months of double-blind medication, translating into daily coverage for the entire treatment period (Garbutt et al. 2005). Naltrexone was significantly more effective in reducing the rate of heavy drinking than placebo, an effect most pronounced in those who had achieved abstinence prior to receiving the first injection. In the subset of those who were abstinent for at least 4 days prior to random assignment, extended-release naltrexone also significantly improved continuous abstinence rates (O’Malley et al. 2007).

In 2019, only 1.6 percent of adults with AUD took a pill to help them stop drinking, according to a report published in JAMA Psychiatry that looked at national survey data. A recent study suggested the use of a decades-old medicine taken before imbibing could reduce the amount of alcohol consumed. Alcoholism is thought to occur due to a mix of genetic, environmental, and social factors. Conditions like anxiety, depression, and bipolar disorder can play a strong role in the development of this chronic disease. Other factors like family history, early alcohol exposure, and trauma can play a role as well. You may want to take a family member or friend along, if possible.