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Acamprosate in the Treatment of Alcohol Dependence: A 6-Month Postdetoxification Study

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Book cover Acamprosate in Relapse Prevention of Alcoholism

Abstract

Alcohol-dependent patients remain at high risk of relapsing during the first 6 months of the postdetoxification period (Hunt et al. 1971). There is fairly general consensus that the major objectives during this period are the maintenance of abstinence from alcohol (Marlatt and Gordon 1985), the patient’s return to a normal life, and preferably his or her establishing stable social and working conditions (Wallace et al. 1988). Many pharmacotherapeutic agents intended to assist the patient through this postdetoxification period are presently under evaluation (Lishow and Goodwin 1987; Litten and Allen 1991; Verbanck et al. 1993). Among them, disulfiram (Fuller et al. 1986), serotonergic agents (Naranjo and Bremner 1992) and naltrexone (Volpicelli et al. 1992; O’Malley et al. 1992) appear to be the most promising. However, the design of the trials performed to test the value of these compounds remained far removed from the “naturalistic” conditions of treatment of most alcoholic patients, and, for this reason, their value in common practice is still unclear.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire de Psychologie Médicale et Alcoologie, Université Libre de Bruxelles (Campus Brugmann), Place Van Gehuchten, 4, 1020, Brussels, Belgium

    I. Pelc, O. Le Bon & P. Verbanck

  2. Département de Sciences Economiques Appliquées, Facultés Catholiques de Mons, 7000, Mons, Belgium

    P. Lehert

Authors
  1. I. Pelc
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  2. O. Le Bon
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  3. P. Lehert
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  4. P. Verbanck
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Psychiatrische Klinik und Poliklinik, Universität München, Nußbaumstr. 7, 80336, München, Germany

    Michael Soyka

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© 1996 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Pelc, I., Le Bon, O., Lehert, P., Verbanck, P. (1996). Acamprosate in the Treatment of Alcohol Dependence: A 6-Month Postdetoxification Study. In: Soyka, M. (eds) Acamprosate in Relapse Prevention of Alcoholism. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-80193-8_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-80193-8_10

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-80195-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-80193-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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