Results of this review do not provide sufficient evidence in favour of anticonvulsants for the treatment of AWS. There are some suggestions that carbamazepine may actually be more effective in treating some aspects of alcohol withdrawal when compared to benzodiazepines, the current first-line regimen for alcohol withdrawal syndrome. Anticonvulsants seem to have limited side effects, although adverse effects are not rigorously reported in the analysed trials.
Ambulant treatment of alcohol withdrawal symptoms with carbamazepine: a formal multicentre doubl-blind comparison with placebo.
One hundred male out-patients were treated for alcohol withdrawal symptoms with either carbamazepine or placebo in a double-blind, multicentre trial carried out a five Finnish A-clinics (alcoholism treatment centres) in different parts of the country. In both the carbamazepine and the placebo groups two thirds of the patients completed the 7-day treatment successfully, and the final treatment results were considered equally good in both groups. However, the withdrawal symptoms, especially the sleep disturbances, subsided faster in the carbamazepine group than in the placebo group. The change in the total symptom score from the first day of treatment to the second was significantly greater in the carbamazepine group than in the placebo group. The patients' ability to work improved significantly faster in the carbamazepine group.