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A drug once used to treat hypertension can help alcoholics with withdrawal symptoms reduce or eliminate their alcohol consumption, Yale University researchers report Nov. 19 in American Journal of Psychiatry.
In a double-blind study, researchers gave the drug prazosin or a placebo to 100 people who started outpatient treatment after being diagnosed with alcohol use disorder. All patients had experienced varying degrees of withdrawal symptoms prior to starting treatment.
According to the researchers, those with more severe symptoms – including shakes, craving, and anxiety and difficulty sleeping – who received prazosin significantly reduced the number of episodes of alcoholism and the days they drank compared to those who received a placebo. The drug had little effect on those with few or no withdrawal symptoms.
There is no treatment readily available for people experiencing severe withdrawal symptoms and these are the people at the highest risk of relapse and are most likely to end up in the hospital emergency room. “
Rajita Sinha, corresponding author, Foundations Fund professor of psychiatry, professor of neuroscience and director of the Yale Stress Center
Prazosin was originally developed to treat hypertension and is still used to treat prostate problems in men, among other conditions. Previous studies conducted at Yale showed that the drug acts on the stress centers in the brain and helps improve working memory and curb anxiety and desire.
Sinha’s lab has shown that the brain’s stress centers are severely disrupted early in recovery, especially for those with withdrawal symptoms and elevated cravings, but that the disruption decreases the longer the person maintains sobriety. Prazosin could help fill this gap by moderating cravings and withdrawal symptoms earlier in recovery and increasing the chances of patients refraining from drinking, he said.
One downside is that in its current form, prazosin has to be administered three times a day to be effective, Sinha noted.
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