BP drug may ease recovery in alcoholics with withdrawal symptoms

New York, Nov 19 : Researchers, including one of Indian-origin, have revealed that drug once used to treat high blood pressure (BP) can help alcoholics with withdrawal symptoms reduce or eliminate their drinking.
In the study, published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, the research team gave the drug prazosin or a placebo to 100 people entering outpatient treatment after being diagnosed with alcohol use disorder.
All of the patients had experienced varying degrees of withdrawal symptoms prior to entering treatment.
“There has been no treatment readily available for people who experience severe withdrawal symptoms and these are the people at highest risk of relapse and are most likely to end up in hospital emergency rooms,” said study author Rajita Sinha from Yale University in the US.
According to the researchers, participants with more severe symptoms — including shakes, heightened cravings and anxiety, and difficulty sleeping — who received prazosin significantly reduced the number of heavy drinking episodes and days they drank compared to those who received a placebo.
The drug had little effect on those with few or no withdrawal symptoms.