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.
Alcohol withdrawal treatment in intoxicated vs non-intoxicated patients: a controlled open-label study with tiapride/carbamazepine, clomethiazole and diazepam.
Alcohol withdrawal treatment efficacy of tiapride/carbamazepine (A) vs clomethiazole (B) vs diazepam (C) in non-intoxicated patients and vs tiapride/carbamazepine in intoxicated patients (D; breath alcohol concentration > or = 1 g/l) was tested (n = 127) in a controlled randomized open-label study.
                Efficacy and safety were not different between groups (total group: delirium, 3.9%; seizure, 0.8%), except for a lack of efficacy in 18% of intoxicated tiapride/carbamazepine patients. A change of medication in this group was necessary only when primarily intoxicated patients had reached the non-intoxicated range.
                Treatment with tiapride/carbamazepine in alcohol-intoxicated patients proved to be safe.