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Rehab News: Promising results from alcohol treatment study

A study by Finnish researchers has found that a drug which suppresses craving may help to reduce the number of heavy-drinking days in people seeking alcohol treatment.

A research team led by Dr Sakari Karhuvaara recruited 403 heavy drinkers, half of whom took the drug nalmefene on an 'as needed basis', and half of whom were given a placebo.

The patients who took nalmefene found that the number of heavy-drinking days per month fell from an average of 15.5 to between 8.6 and 9.3 during the first three months of treatment.

Those who took the placebo found that their number of heavy-drinking days only fell from 16.2 days to between 10.6 and 12.0 during the study period.

Dr Karhuvaara said that the alcohol treatment had "a robust and sustained effect in reducing harmful heavy drinking in a large study population".

"Alcohol dependence is nowadays recognised as a chronic, recurring disorder where relapses almost inevitable occur during and after the treatment," the researcher continued, adding that it is therefore important to focus on harm reduction in the short-term.

Raymond Anton, director of the Centre for Drug and Alcohol Programmes at the Medical University of South Carolina, noted that complete abstinence is not always the best solution for people considering alcohol treatment.

"The thinking is that if you can reduce heavy drinking days or the number of drinks per drinking day, you might actually alleviate some suffering, even though you don't cause the person to be abstinent," he said.

The research is published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.

Article published on 06/07/2007 by DryOutNow.com