Injection to curb alcohol dependence

A once-a-month injection may help alcoholics maintain sobriety. Naltrexone is a drug that blocks opiate receptors and has been used to treat drug addiction, but previous studies looking at its effects in people with alcoholism had produced varying results. In theory, a long-acting 'depot' formulation of the drug given by injection at relatively long intervals might improve compliance and treatment results. To investigate this, researchers from the University of Connecticut, USA, assessed the outcomes of 315 patients with alcohol dependence who were randomly selected to receive either a monthly injection of long-acting naltrexone or an inactive placebo for 3 months. In addition, all subjects attended five sessions of motivational counselling. It was found that compared with placebo, long-acting naltrexone significantly prolonged the time to the first drinking day. In addition, naltrexone-treated patients had significantly fewer drinking days and had a higher abstinence rate than controls (18 percent versus 10 percent). The drug appeared to be well tolerated and 74 percent of patients received all injections.
Further studies are needed to investigate the use of this formulation for other addictions and to compare it with oral naltrexone.

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