Comparison of oral naltrexone and naltrexone implant treatment in alcohol use disorders

OpenAlex İngilizce

Objective: The aim of this study is to retrospectively compare the efficacy of long acting naltrexone (XR-NTX) and oral naltrexone (O-NTX) treatment in alcohol use disorder patients. Methods: In the study, retrospective data including sociodemographic characteristics, treatment continuation rates, mean treatment duration (duration of abstinence) and liver function test results were scanned from the medical records and then analyzed in a group of 16 patients and a group of 27 patients who were put on XR-NTX and O-NTX treatments, respectively. Results: 87.5% (14 patients) of the XR-NTX treatment group and 88.9% (24 patients) of the O-NTX treatment group com-prised of male patients. The mean age in the XR-NTX group was 41.31±10.26 years; whereas it was 42.14±9.07 in the O-NTX group. Fourteen patients in the XR-NTX (87.5%) and 15 patients (55.6%) in the O-NTX group returned for control after the first admission. Thus, treatment compliance was significantly higher in the XR-NTX group than in the O-NTX group. Conclusion: An increase in treatment compliance with XR-NTX treatment was observed in the study. This study may suggest that XR-NTX is more efficient than O-NXR in the treatment of alcohol use disorder. Thus XR-NTX treatment may be a good alternative for patients with alcohol use disorder to stay on treat-ment for a longer time.