Epilepsy drug may help alcoholics

August 10, 2008 by Aubrey01

(No Ratings Yet)

Loading ...

University of Michigan researchers have found that an epilepsy drug might reduce insomnia, and help alcoholics become sober again.

Alcoholics are highly likely to suffer from chronic insomnia that keeps them from getting enough night sleep, and the condition reduces of recovering from alcohol dependence. However, doctors don’t normally prescribe insomnia medications, because most sleeping pills can be habit-forming or have adverse
effects due to an alcohol-damaged liver.

The University of Michigan alcoholism and sleep researchers recent study may offer some sign of a possible way out of this conundrum.

The study, published in the August issue of the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, suggests that the drug gabapentin might be able to reduce insomnia in recovering alcoholics, and help
them stay away from alcohol more successfully. The drug, often used to treat epilepsy and chronic pain, is not habit-forming and is not processed by the liver.

Although the study involved only 21 insomniacs in recovery from alcohol dependence, and did not provide long-term gabapentin treatment or long-term follow-up on their sleep or their alcohol recovery, it was
randomized, placebo-controlled, and double-blinded. In all, 30 percent of the patients who received gabapentin during alcohol recovery relapsed to drinking, compared with 80 percent of those who received a
placebo.

Based on the results, the researchers have already launched additional studies of the potential role of gabapentin in alcohol recovery and sleep.

“We showed that the patients who got the real drug, rather than placebo, were less likely to relapse to drinking — or if they relapsed it was later,” says lead author Kirk Brower, M.D., FASAM, the executive
director of U-M Addiction Treatment Services and a professor of psychiatry at the U-M Medical School. “In other words, gabapentin prevented and delayed relapse. Meanwhile, patients reported sleeping
better in both the treatment and placebo groups, which may be due to the gabapentin in the first group and the resumption of drinking in the other.”

“We showed that the patients who got the real drug, rather than placebo, were less likely to relapse to drinking — or if they relapsed it was later,” said lead author Dr Kirk Brower, FASAM, the executive director of U-M Addiction Treatment Services and a professor of psychiatry at the U-M Medical School.

“In other words, gabapentin prevented and delayed relapse. Meanwhile, patients reported sleeping better in both the treatment and placebo groups, which may be due to the gabapentin in the first group and the resumption of drinking in the other,” he added.

Co-author Dr. Flavia Consens, an associate professor of neurology and member of the U-M Sleep Disorders Centre said that as many as 70 percent of people with alcohol problems suffer insomnia, while others cope with other sleep disturbances including breathing problems known as sleep apnea.