German researchers studied a group of 180 chronic alcoholics treated with alcohol-deterrent (AD) drugs. "Abstinence rates were better in patients who stayed on alcohol deterrents for more than 20 months as compared to patients who terminated intake at 13 to 20 months," said corresponding author Hannelore Ehrenreich of the division of clinical neuroscience at the Max-Planck-Institute of Experimental Medicine.

However, Ehrenreich said the effectiveness of the drugs may be as much psychological as pharmacological. "First, the longer the intake, the more likely is a patient to stay continuously abstinent even after the termination of ADs. Second, the dose of ADs is as irrelevant as the experience of a subsequent reaction for ADs to be effective. Third, sham-ADs are as efficient as disulfiram or calcium carbimide, provided that the use is repeatedly explained and continuously guided and encouraged," Ehrenreich said.

The research appears in the January 2005 issue of the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.

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