Am J Psychiatry 1987; 144:1310-1312
Copyright © 1987 by American Psychiatric Association
Psychiatric complications of disulfiram treatment
L Branchey, W Davis, KK Lee and RK Fuller
Bronx VA Medical Center, New York.
The authors studied psychiatric complications of disulfiram use in 605
alcoholic patients. The subjects were assigned to one of three treatment
groups: a 250-mg disulfiram group (N = 202), a 1-mg disulfiram group (N =
204) to control for the fear of the alcohol- disulfiram reaction, and a
no-disulfiram group (N = 199) to control for the effect of psychotherapy.
No significant differences in the incidence of psychiatric complications
were found among the three groups. The authors conclude that if psychiatric
complications follow disulfiram use, the incidence must be very low with
the doses of disulfiram used presently and in the absence of predisposing
factors.
