This shows the effects of naltrexone treatment on days spent drinking. Treatment with naltrexone significantly reduced the percentage of days drinking relative to placebo. As represented by the red bar in the figure, the naltrexone group drank almost half of the number of days as the placebo group. This shows the effects of naltrexone on an objective measure of alcohol use, GGT levels. Naltrexone treatment significantly reduced GGT levels.
Liver damage is an important objective measure of the consequences of excessive alcohol drinking.
This shows the effect of naltrexone on the return to excessive alcohol drinking or relapse. Treatment with naltrexone significantly reduced relapse rates relative to placebo. As seen in this slide, about one half of the placebo subjects met relapse criteria during the study. However, only one quarter of the naltrexone subjects relapsed during the study. This is the first study to show that a medication could significantly reduced relapse rates for alcohol dependent patients.