NALTREXONE AND BRIEF COUNSELING TO REDUCE HEAVY DRINKING - RESULTS OFA SMALL CLINICAL-TRIAL

Naltrexone (NTX) has been shown to be safe and effective in reducing r elapses among alcoholics. Among nondependent heavy drinkers, who are m ore numerous in the general population than are alcohol-dependent drin kers, brief counseling has been shown to reduce alcohol consumption. T he authors conducted a 6-week randomized study of the effects of addin g 25-mg or 50-mg daily doses of NTX to brief counseling in 14 nondepen dent heavy drinkers. NTX was well-tolerated. Desire for alcohol, drink ing frequency, frequency of heavy drinking, total alcohol consumption, and serum gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase all decreased significantly d uring treatment. A placebo-controlled trial is warranted to evaluate f urther the efficacy of NTX in this group of problem drinkers.