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Alcohol use disorder can be treated with an array of medications – but few people have heard of them

With the onset of the opioid epidemic in the past two decades, medications for opioid use disorder, such as methadone and buprenorphine, have entered the public consciousness. But medications for alcohol use disorder are less familiar to the public and used less frequently. While 22% of patients with opioid use disorder receive medications to treat it, the rate of medication treatment for alcohol use disorder is much lower. Less than 10% of people with alcohol use disorder receive any treatment in any year, and less than 3% receive medications for it. Regrettably, many people with alcohol use disorder don’t recognize the severity of their drinking and its effects on others, and many do not…

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Articles of Interest

Weight-Loss Drugs May Help Alcohol and Opioid Addiction

A study published recently in the journal Addiction shows that people with substance-use disorders who take these weight-loss drugs are less likely to experience opioid overdose or alcohol intoxication compared to those not taking the medications. The findings add to a growing list of other health benefits researchers are studying related to the medications, which target hormones called incretins that affect not just appetite, digestion, and diabetes, but also heart health, sleep, and the brain circuits connected to satisfaction and reward.

A Pill to Treat Alcoholism Exists. Why Aren’t Doctors Prescribing It More?

In hundreds of studies, naltrexone has been found to be a safe and effective medication to help people reduce and stop drinking. Yet it’s woefully underprescribed.

A Prescription to End Drinking

The Food and Drug Administration has approved three prescription drugs to treat alcohol problems. But they are seldom used, largely because 12-step programs have dominated the treatment field, NIAAA experts say. All drugs used for this purpose have side effects. Most side effects—though not all—are mild. Naltrexone works on opioid receptors in the brain’s reward system and blocks the pleasant effects of alcohol. It doesn’t work in everyone.

Advances in the science and treatment of alcohol use disorder

Alcohol use disorder is characterized by loss of control over alcohol drinking that is accompanied by changes in brain regions related to the execution of motivated behaviors and to the control of stress and emotionality (e.g., the midbrain, the limbic system, the prefrontal cortex, and the amygdala).

Alcohol Abuse Is on the Rise, but Doctors Too Often Fail to Treat It

People with alcohol use disorder are often seen in clinics and hospitals, but medical professionals too often ignore the condition. While there is no silver bullet for alcohol use disorder, several medications have been approved to treat it, including pills like acamprosate and disulfiram, as well as oral and injectable forms of naltrexone. These medications can blunt cravings and reduce the urge to drink, making it easier for people to quit or cut back when combined with behavioral interventions like therapy.

Alcohol Abuse Is on the Rise, but Doctors Too Often Fail to Treat It

People with alcohol use disorder are often seen in clinics and hospitals, but medical professionals too often ignore the condition.

Alcohol use disorder: Pharmacologic management

Several medications can be used to treat alcohol use disorder, leading to reduced heavy drinking and increased days of abstinence [3]. These outcomes likely reduce the overall risk associated with alcohol use disorder despite total abstinence not being achieved.

Can Old Prescription Drugs Provide New Treatments for Alcoholism?

Alcohol addiction is as destructive today as it was in van Gogh’s time, but Harris believes there now might be an ideal way to overcome it—one that we’ve created without even realizing it. New prescription drugs that could help addicts wean themselves off alcohol might already exist, he says; it’s just that they’re used to treat other conditions. Because the brain cells of an alcoholic have different genes turned on than the brain cells in a non-alcoholic, Harris wants to find prescriptions drugs that can be repurposed to turn off the problem genes in an alcoholic’s brain, effectively wiping it of withdrawal symptoms.

Does Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) for Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) Work?

Despite the proven effectiveness of MAT, less than 4% of people with alcohol use disorder get medications to help them abstain from use. This is a shame because, nowadays, there are several very effective medications to help reduce the cravings for alcohol in patients trying to abstain.

Drugs Help Tailor Alcoholism Treatment

Of the medications currently available, only three have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for treating alcoholism, and of those, only two — naltrexone and acamprosate — actually reduce the cravings to drink. (The third, disulfiram, sold as Antabuse, makes patients sick if they drink alcohol by blocking the body’s ability to metabolize it.)

Drugs to Aid Alcoholics See Little Use, Study Finds

Two medications could help tens of thousands of alcoholics quit drinking, yet the drugs are rarely prescribed to patients, researchers reported on Tuesday. The medications, naltrexone and acamprosate, reduce cravings for alcohol by fine-tuning the brain’s chemical reward system. They have been approved for treating alcoholism for over a decade. But questions about their efficacy and a lack of awareness among doctors have resulted in the drugs’ being underused, the researchers said.

How Medication Assisted Treatment Can Help Combat Alcoholism

Medication assisted treatment (MAT) represents a paradigm shift in addiction treatment by introducing FDA-approved medications as a complement to counseling and therapeutic interventions. It aims to reduce cravings, withdrawal symptoms, and the risk of relapse, while simultaneously addressing the underlying psychological and behavioral aspects of alcohol addiction.

How Medication-Assisted Treatment for Alcohol Use Disorder Helps

You may think that taking medication for alcohol use disorder replaces one drug with another. This is not true. Alcohol dependence medications are prescriptions like any other for a medical condition. When appropriately used, alcohol-dependence medications will not cause a new addiction. Instead, they’ll help set you free.

Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) for Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD): An Overview

Psychosocial interventions are helpful, but alcohol use and relapse rates decrease most when these interventions are combined with medications.

Medication-assisted treatment for alcohol-dependent adults with serious mental illness and criminal justice involvement: effects on treatment utilization and outcomes

MAT is under-used for treating alcohol dependence, especially among adults with serious mental illness. These results suggest MAT can have important benefits for clinical outcomes in this population. More research is needed to improve its use for this population, and to address barriers to its use.

Medication-Assisted Treatment for Alcohol: How It Works

When medication-assisted treatment is utilized, those who are recovering from alcohol use disorder can benefit in a number of ways. Not only can they better manage their withdrawal symptoms and cravings, but they can also effectively deter themselves from drinking more effectively. Medication-assisted treatment for alcohol helps individuals place their full focus on their therapy, rather than how they are feeling physically.

Pharmacotherapy for Adults With Alcohol Use Disorders in Outpatient Settings

Both acamprosate and oral naltrexone (50 mg/d) were associated with reduction in return to drinking. They have the best evidence for improving alcohol consumption outcomes for patients with AUDs. Head-to-head trials have not established superiority of either medication. Among medications used off-label, moderate evidence supports an association with improvement in some consumption outcomes for nalmefene and topiramate.

The ABCs of MAT—Medically Assisted Treatment—including Commonly Used Medications for Alcohol Use Disorder (Alcoholism)

It should be noted up front, MAT doesn’t rely solely upon specially prescribed medicines to help a person caught in the throes of addiction: it also uses psychotherapeutic counseling, as well as in-depth education about both addiction and recovery to help those struggling with chemical dependency issues.

The little pill that could cure alcoholism

When an alcoholic doctor began experimenting with Baclofen, he made what could be the medical breakthrough of the century.