KUMJ | VOL. 23 | NO. 3 | ISSUE 91 | JULY-SEPTEMBER, 2025

Comparative Study of Different Anti Craving Medication for Alcohol Dependence and Their Effect on Relapse Rate
Kunwar D, Risal A

Abstract:
Background Alcohol use disorder is a chronic medical condition with a multifactorial aetiology. Food and drug administration approved treatment options for alcohol dependence syndrome includes: Naltrexone, Acamprosate, and Disulfiram and Topiramate as an off label drug. The lack of data specific to the Nepalese population pose significant challenges. Objective To fill that gap by assessing the effectiveness of Naltrexone, Disulfiram, Topiramate and Acamprosate in relapse prevention Method Hospital based cohort study conducted over a period of two months. The total 128 participants were divided into four groups randomly. Patients in the Naltrexone group were prescribed a 50 mg tablet once daily, patients in Topiramate group was given 25 mg up to 100 mg. Acamprosate group, 333 mg one tablet three times a day was given and Disulfiram group received 250 mg once a day and followed up for four weeks. The association between alcohol consumption and sociodemographic characteristics was assessed using Chi-square test. The Statistical Package for Social Science software (IBM SPSS Statistics 21, Chicago, USA) was used for analysis. Result Out of 128 participants 23.4% relapsed in 12 weeks follow up. Naltrexone, Topiramate, Disulfiram, and Acamprosate all were equally effective in preventing relapse and there was no statistically significant differences identified among these medications regarding relapse prevention in our study. Conclusion This study contributes important new data on the efficacy of Acamprosate in the treatment of alcohol dependence in Nepalese population. The study also support for use of pharmacotherapy for relapse prevention.
Keyword : Alcohol dependence, Anti-craving drugs, Relapse prevention