Home > Anticonvulsants for cocaine dependence.

Minozzi, Silvia and Cinquini, Michela and Amato, Laura and Davoli, Marina and Farrell, Michael and Pani, Pier Paolo and Vecchi, Simona (2015) Anticonvulsants for cocaine dependence. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, (4), DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD006754.pub4.

External website: https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/1...

Key results:
The review authors identified 20 studies with 2068 participants, 77% male, with a mean age of 36 years. The mean duration of the trials was 11.8 weeks (range eight to 24 weeks). All but two of the trials were conducted in the USA, all with outpatients. The anticonvulsant drugs studied were carbamazepine, gabapentin, lamotrigine, phenytoin, tiagabine, topiramate and vigabatrin. All studies compared anticonvulsants versus placebo.

No significant differences were found between placebo and any anticonvulsant in reducing the number of dropouts from treatment, use of cocaine, craving and severity of dependence, depression or anxiety. Side effects were slightly more frequent in the anticonvulsant groups. No current evidence supports the clinical use of anticonvulsant medications for the treatment of cocaine dependence.


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