New combination of treatments is effective for alcohol dependence

McLean Hospital researchers, along with colleagues from 11 other study sites nationwide, report that the medication naltrexone and up to 20 sessions of alcohol counseling delivered by a behavioral specialist are equally effective treatments for alcohol dependence when delivered with structured medical management in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Results from the National Institutes of Health-supported Combining Medications and Behavioral Interventions for Alcoholism (COMBINE) study show that patients who received naltrexone, specialized alcohol counseling, or both demonstrated the best drinking outcomes after 16 weeks of outpatient treatment. All patients also received Medical Management, an intervention that consisted of nine brief, structured outpatient sessions provided by a health care professional. Contrary to expectations, the researchers found no effect on drinking of the medication acamprosate and no additive benefit from adding acamprosate to naltrexone.

“This was the largest clinical trial looking at the effectiveness of pharmacologic and behavioral treatments for alcohol dependence ever conducted and the results are promising,” said Roger Weiss, clinical director of the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment Program for McLean Hospital, a Harvard Medical School affiliate. Weiss was also the principal investigator of COMBINE for the McLean study site.