© 2005 Behavioral Health Research Institute of the Southwest
612 Encino Place NE / Albuquerque, NM 87102 / 505.244.3099 / www.bhrcs.org

Albuquerque Journal – April 18, 2005

Injection May Curb Drinking
By Jackie Jadrnak, Journal Staff Writer

A once-a-month shot might be able to help alcoholics resist their craving for a drink.

A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association earlier this month showed that injections of Vivitrex, a slow-release form of naltrexone, reduced heavy drinking by 25 percent at a higher dose and 17 percent at a lower dose.

Locally, 46 people participated in this study through the Behavioral Health Research Center of the Southwest in Albuquerque.

"The results were quite encouraging," said Dr. Sandra Lapham, the center's director. But, she cautioned, it's not a "magic bullet."

In any case, you can't give it a try right away. The clinical trials have been finished and the drug now is being considered by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. It only will hit the market if and when that agency approves it.

Naltrexone is a drug that blocks opiate receptors in the brain. People on the drug are less likely to experience the pleasant "high" that comes with drinking.

It already is available through a daily pill, but many people either don't remember or decide not to take a pill every day, Lapham said. Vivitrex delivers the drug through microspheres that are injected into a person's muscle. The microspheres then slowly dissolve and release the medication into the bloodstream over a month's time.

Current recommendations call for taking the daily pills for no more than three months at a time, but no recommendation has been made yet on the injection, she said.

"We've had some people on the shots for more than a year," Lapham said. "It's going to have to be debated. There may be some heavily alcohol-dependent people who need to take it for long periods of time. It's a new field. There are no real answers to that."

The study on Vivitrex was conducted on 624 people between February 2002 and September 2003. To qualify, they had to be alcohol-dependent with a history of heavy drinking— that's defined as five or more drinks a day for men and four or more for women.

They were randomly assigned to either receive a placebo, a 380-milligram injection, or a 190-milligram injection. All participants also received a low level of psycho-social counseling. When their drinking before and after the trial was compared, those in the higher-dosage group saw the greatest reduction in days of heavy drinking.

All groups showed some reduction in drinking, Lapham said. "People joining a study are motivated (to reduce their drinking) in the first place," she said. Also, she said, she did a physical exam on the participants and if they learned, for instance, that their liver was enlarged, they had an extra incentive to drink less.

While the reduced drinking from the injections was statistically significant in men, it wasn't in women, she added. "It's not clear why that happened," Lapham said.
While the naltrexone pills have been available, they haven't been widely used to combat alcohol dependence, she said. Lapham said she thinks that may be because pharmaceutical companies making them haven't marketed them aggressively and because many people in the alcohol treatment field don't support the idea of using medications to fight addiction.

"I would encourage everyone to keep an open mind on the fact that it is a disease and there are medications that may be helpful to treat it," she said.

Copyright © 2005, Albuquerque Journal
Requests for permission to republish, or to copy and distribute must be obtained at the Albuquerque Publishing Co. Library, 505-823-3492, or through www.icopyright.com.