Journal Article

Prospective randomized pharmacogenetic study of topiramate for treating alcohol use disorder

Hartwell, Emily E, Kranzler, Henry R, Pond, Timothy, Kampman, Kyle M, Morris, Paige E, Lynch, Kevin G, Crist, Richard C

2021

Overview

In a prior study, topiramate reduced heavy drinking among individuals who sought to reduce their drinking, with the effect moderated by a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP; rs2832407) in GRIK1, which encodes the kainate GluK1 receptor subunit (Kranzler et al. 2014). The present study sought to replicate prospectively the effect of topiramate and rs2832407 in patients with DSM-5 alcohol use disorder (AUD) who sought to reduce or stop their drinking. We stratified the randomization on genotype (rs2832407*C-allele homozygotes vs. A-allele carriers) and assigned 170 European-American participants (71.2% male) to receive 12 weeks of treatment with topiramate (N  = 85), at a maximal daily dosage of 200 mg, or matching placebo (N = 85). At each of nine treatment visits participants received brief counseling to reduce drinking and increase abstinent days. We hypothesized that topiramate-treated patients with the rs2832407*CC genotype would reduce heavy drinking days (HDDs) more than the other three groups. The rate of treatment completion was 91.8% in both groups. The mean number of HDDs per week in the placebo group was 1.67 (95% CI = (1.29, 2.16), p = 0.0001) times greater than in the topiramate group, which was confirmed by the topiramate group’s significantly greater reduction in the concentration of the liver enzyme γ-glutamyltransferase and lower alcohol-related problems score. There was no significant difference in topiramate’s effect on HDDs between genotype groups. Although consistent with other studies showing a reduction in heavy drinking with topiramate treatment, the prior finding of a moderating effect of rs2832407 genotype was not replicated in this prospective trial.

• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
• Subject: Alcohol abuse / Alcohol use / Alleles / Dosage / Drinking behavior / Gene polymorphism / Genotype & phenotype / Homozygotes / Placebos / Single-nucleotide polymorphism / Topiramate / γ-Glutamyltransferase