This service updates you with developments at the DRUG AND ALCOHOL FINDINGS web site
http://findings.org.uk
Second instalment of our selection from the Drug and Alcohol Findings Old Gold series, in which we
revisited seminal studies in the light of today's concerns and priorities. Both the featured studies
helped establish fundamental alcohol pharmacotherapies, and in both cases we tracked down and
published the reflections of the original researchers.
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FROM THE '60S, AN UNREPEATABLE STUDY WHICH ESTABLISHED BENZODIAZEPINES AS THE TREATMENT FOR ALCOHOL
WITHDRAWAL
In the 1960s hospitals for patients who had served in the US military were faced by widespread and
serious alcohol withdrawal problems. Confusion reigned over how to prevent life-threatening
complications including seizures. Published in 1969, this study established the new benzodiazepine
drugs as the treatment of choice. Over the following decades it helped make detoxification safer and
easier for thousands of patients. It was convincing partly because it compared the results against
dummy placebo medication, an option which today would probably be ruled unethical due to the dangers
patients were exposed to. Thanks to this study, we now know these dangers are avoidable, but then it
was unclear whether anything helped.
To download, click on the link below or copy in full to your web browser's address bar:
http://findings.org.uk/count/downloads/download.php?file=Sellers_EM_1.pdf
NEGATIVE FINDINGS OVERALL BUT FIRST RIGOROUS TEST HINTS AT ANTABUSE'S POTENTIAL IN SUITABLE PATIENTS
In '60s America disulfiram (Antabuse) was approved for the treatment of alcohol dependence, but when
Dr Fuller checked he found little solid scientific support. He set out to test the drug in the first
rigorous trials. Cleverly he prescribed an active dose to one group of patients and an inactive dose
to another. Both could honestly be told they were being given disulfiram and that this was a drug
which made people feel very ill if they drank. Overall the active medication made no difference to
drinking outcomes. However, some more stable patients who took the pills but also 'tested' their
effect by drinking did benefit from the active medication, galvanising follow-on research to
investigate how disulfiram can be made to work and with whom.
To download, click on the link below or copy in full to your web browser's address bar:
http://findings.org.uk/count/downloads/download.php?file=Anton_RF_6.pdf
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Further information from [log in to unmask] or by replying to this e-mail. FINDINGS is managed
by DrugScope, Alcohol Concern and the National Addiction Centre, the two leading UK drug and alcohol
information charities and the UK's leading clinical/research centre. The project is supported by the
J. Paul Getty Jr. Charitable Trust (http://www.jpgettytrust.org.uk) and the Pilgrim Trust
(http://www.thepilgrimtrust.org.uk).
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