Tiagabine (Gabitril) Helps Reduce Cocaine Use
It came as a bit of a surprise, but tiagabine (Gabitril, Cephalon) was found to be superior to gabapentin (Neurontin, Pfizer) in reducing cocaine use among cocaine-dependent patients who were taking methadone.
Researchers at Yale University and the University of Arkansas in Little Rock randomly assigned 76 cocaine-dependent men to receive tiagabine 24 mg/day, gabapentin 2,400 mg/day, or placebo in a 10-week double-blind trial. Study medications were slowly increased to the full dosages by the end of the fifth week and were maintained through the 10th week.
The proportion of cocaine-free urine samples during weeks six to 10 was significantly larger in the tiagabine group. In addition to producing an increase in cocaine-free urine samples by 48%, tia-gabine also led to an increase in cocaine abstinence rates to 35%, compared with a rate of only 11% in the gabapentin patients and 29% in the placebo groups. Basically, gabapentin was no better than placebo at reducing cocaine use. order levaquin
Tiagabine was well tolerated, with no evidence of oversedation, seizures, or other significant side effects. The researchers suggest initiating tiagabine at night, then increasing the dose at night on a twice-daily schedule until reaching the target dosage.
