The antiepileptic drug topiramate helps reduce drinking and improve overall quality of life in patients with alcohol dependence, according to an article in the September issue of The Archives of General Psychiatry.

According to information in the article, topiramate is effective at reducing craving and heavy drinking and improves abstinence among people with alcohol dependence. In the current work, Bankole A. Johnson, MD, PhD, and his American colleagues investigated whether topiramate could reduce harmful psychosocial consequences associated with alcohol dependence and improve quality of life.

The researchers recruited 150 alcohol-dependent individuals between the ages of 21 and 65 years. Half were randomized to topiramate and half to placebo for a course of twelve weeks (between 1998 and 2001). Three elements of psychosocial functioning were measured at baseline and at several points throughout the duration of the study: overall well-being and alcohol-dependence severity, quality of life, and harmful drinking consequences.

Averaged over the duration of the study, participants receiving topiramate were more than twice as likely to have improvements in well-being than participants taking placebo. Participants receiving topiramate were also more than two and one half times as likely to report abstinence from alcohol and were more than twice as likely to report overall satisfaction with life. They also reported fewer instances of harmful drinking consequences than participants receiving placebo.

“Our results show that topiramate is more effective than placebo at improving the quality of life and overall clinical condition and at reducing the severity of addiction and harmful consequences of heavy drinking,” the authors wrote. “Topiramate’s effect at improving psychosocial functioning was robust, with an increasing trend toward better outcomes as treatment progressed.”