New data supports use of muscle relaxant to treat alcoholism

it was subsidized by a pharmaceutical company that confirmed the filing of an application for marketing the use of baclofen for alcohol addiction, on the same day the two studies were made public.      

Baclofen was initially approved by French authorities to treat alcoholism in 2014, but previous research has failed to provide complete evidence regarding the drug’s efficacy in treating alcohol abuse — which would require patients to take high doses of the drug. Consequently, in France, only 10-milligram tablets of the muscle relaxant are currently available for sale. More research is underway, but the new results may change the way baclofen is commercialized not only in France but in the world.

Reynaud added he believes that if baclofen can reduce the amount of alcohol consumed by at-risk populations “in one case out of two, it’s already not bad.”