Topamax may help alcohol-using smokers quit

The anti-Epilepsy pill Topamax (a.k.a. topiramate) is a safe and promising treatment for helping alcohol-dependent smokers quit cigarettes, according to the results of a new study.

In a previous study, Dr. Bankole A. Johnson, of the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, and colleagues showed that topiramate is an effective treatment for alcohol dependence. In a further analysis, they examined whether the drug improved the smoking cessation rate among the cigarette smokers in the earlier study.

Ninety-four smokers had been randomly assigned to topiramate or placebo treatment. Those who received topiramate were significantly more likely than those who received placebo to abstain from smoking, according to results published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Smoking cessation rates after 9 weeks and 12 weeks were 19 percent and 17 percent, respectively, for topiramate recipients. For placebo recipients, rates were 6.9 percent at both time points.

“These results are particularly interesting because this study did not specifically target treating the smoking behavior of these alcohol-dependent individuals,” Johnson said in an interview. “It is therefore possible that targeting both these disorders directly might yield even greater health benefits,” he said.

Adverse events were generally mild or moderate. No serious adverse events were reported.

“Topiramate appears to be a particularly promising medication in the addiction medicine field,” the Johnson said.

“Its development has taken almost a decade of painstaking scientific effort,” he noted. “This effort has opened up new areas of understanding as to how the brain is changed by addictive substances, and the processes that need to be altered or ameliorated to enable a reduction in addictive behaviors.”

SOURCE: Archives of Internal Medicine, July 25, 2005.

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