Acta clinica Croatica, Vol. 42 No. 1, 2003.
Professional paper
Sulpiride Psychopharmacotherapy in Patients with Alcohol Addiction and Depression Comorbidity
Vesna Golik-Gruber
Darko Breitenfeld
Ema Ničea Gruber
Dalibor Karlović
Abstract
Depression is quite common in the early stage of treatment for alcohol addiction. The patient's awareness of his difficult situation may be one of the reasons for depression. Furthermore, depression can develop as the result of depressive disorders that are primarily or secondarily associated with alcohol addiction. Antidepressive therapy is usually initiated after a two-week detoxification procedure. Only exceptionally it may start earlier in case of severe depressive disorder. The administration of sulpiride from the very beginning of treatment yields favorable results because of the wide range of its action, especially antidepressive effects. The effect of sulpiride therapy was investigated in 20 alcoholics suffering from minor to moderate depressive disorders. The patients were administered 50 mg sulpiride capsules three times a day. Control group included 20 patients who received placebo. Both the study and control group patients underwent psychotherapeutic methods usually conducted in a sociotherapeutic community. The severity of depressive disorder was measured by use of Hamilton's and Beck's scale before, and then at 2, 4and 6 weeks from the beginning of treatment. Also, the patients were clinically observed during the psychotherapeutic procedures and other activities performed in the therapeutic community. Study results confirmed the efficacy of sulpiride in the management of depressive alcohol addiction in alcoholics. The sulpiride dose of 150 mg/day showed a rapid antidepressive effect. Accordingly, sulpiride was confirmed to play an important role in the rational use of psychopharmacotherapy in patients with alcohol addiction in a sociotherapeutic community.
Keywords
Alcoholism, drug therapy; Depressive disorder, drug therapy; Sulpiride, therapeutic use
Hrčak ID:
14578
URI
Publication date:
3.3.2003.
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