title: Physicians' opinions about medications to treat alcoholism.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Medications play a limited role in the treatment of alcoholism. This paper examines physicians' opinions about and use of two alcoholism medications currently approved in the US--disulfiram and naltrexone--and one alcoholism medication--acamprosate--that might be approved.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 1388 substance abuse specialist physicians who were members of the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry or the American Society of Addiction Medicine completed a questionnaire in 2001 (65% response rate).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The average percentages of physicians' patients with alcoholism who were prescribed the following medications were: 13% (naltrexone), 9% (disulfiram), 46% (antidepressants) and 11% (benzodiazepines). Almost all physicians had heard of naltrexone and disulfiram, but their self-reported level of knowledge about these medications was lower than for antidepressants. Physicians estimated that naltrexone had a small-to-medium effect size, which was similar in magnitude to the effect size reported in recent meta-analyses of randomized clinical trials. Physicians identified the following three courses of action as the most likely to result in greater use of medications to treat alcohol dependence: more research to develop new medications (33%), more education of physicians about existing medications (17%), and increased involvement of physicians in alcoholism treatment (17%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Physicians' low rate of use of naltrexone may reflect its small-to-medium effect size.
authors.affiliation: Medstat, Washington, DC 20008, USA. tami.mark@medstat.com
authors.forename: Tami L
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Mark
authors.forename: Henry R
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Kranzler
authors.forename: Xue
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: Peace
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bransberger
authors.forename: Virginia H
authors.initials: VH
authors.lastname: Poole
authors.forename: Scott
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Crosse
mesh_terms: D000077443:Acamprosate; D000427:Alcohol Deterrents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000188:drug therapy*; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002983:Clinical Competence; D004221:Disulfiram / Q000627:therapeutic use; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006801:Humans; D009271:Naltrexone / Q000627:therapeutic use; D009292:Narcotic Antagonists / Q000627:therapeutic use; D013654:Taurine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000627:therapeutic use; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D000427:Alcohol Deterrents; D009292:Narcotic Antagonists; D013654:Taurine; D009271:Naltrexone; D000077443:Acamprosate; D004221:Disulfiram