Outcome of Topiramate Treatment More Than 6 Months in Outpatients with Alcohol Dependence at Srinagarind Hospital

Abstract

Objective : The primary objective is to compare the clinical outcomes of topiramate
treatment more than 6 months with another drugs without topiramate in patients with
alcohol dependence. The secondary objective is to identify factors associated with the
percentage of abstinence day.
Method : An observational analytic study with prospective data collection was
conducted. Participants were Thai patients with alcohol dependence according to
DSM-IV-TR who visited at psychiatric out-patient clinic at Srinagarind Hospital during
January 2016 to December 2016. Primary outcome measures were the mean difference
of the percentage of abstinence day and mean difference of the craving score.
Result : Participants were recruited in this study which devided in to 2 groups. The
group of taken topiramate more than 6 months consisted of 12 participants. Another
gruoup of no taken topiramate consisted of 20 participants. By using Mann whitney U
test to compare the mean difference of abstinence day between the topiramate group
and no topiramate group showed no statistical significant difference (p >0.005). Mean
of abstinence day in topiramate group was 27.42 days, while no topiramate group
was 25.05 days.There was no statistical significant difference between groups on
mean difference of craving score (p > 0.05). Factors associated with the percentage
of abstinence day with statistical significant (p < 0.05) were the previous abstinence
month, stressful life events, presence of comorbidity, no family member of alcoholic
and degree of craving.
Conclusion : This study could not show the effect of long term use of topiramate to
increase the percentage of abstinence day and reduce craving score in statistically
significant due to small sample size. However, the craving score trend to decrease more
in topiramate group than another