Use of colchicine and steroids in the treatment of alcoholic liver disease.
To date, only one group has reported its clinical experience with colchicine therapy. This study included a randomized clinical trial of 22 patients and an open study of 53 patients. The beneficial effect of 1 mg colchicine daily for five days a week has been promising but not convincing. Corticosteroid therapy for the treatment of alcoholic hepatitis was evaluated in nine short-term randomized clinical trials that included 150 treated and 161 control patients with a mortality rate of 37 and 44%, respectively. In these studies, encephalopathy was present in 80 treated and 76 control patients with a mortality rate of 59 and 74%, respectively. None of these differences is significant. The studies did document that patients with mild disease require no specific therapy besides abstinence and general supportive measures; those with severe disease showed a trend toward better survival on corticosteroid therapy. This trend was strong in the earlier publications, but was absent in the most recent studies, which included the largest numbers of patients.
D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D003078:Colchicine / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D002149:Energy Intake; D006501:Hepatic Encephalopathy / Q000188:drug therapy; D006519:Hepatitis, Alcoholic / Q000188:drug therapy; D006801:Humans; D008104:Liver Cirrhosis, Alcoholic / Q000188:drug therapy; D008108:Liver Diseases, Alcoholic / Q000188:drug therapy*; D008775:Methylprednisolone / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D011239:Prednisolone / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D011379:Prognosis
D011239:Prednisolone; D003078:Colchicine; D008775:Methylprednisolone