Trial reportJournal of addiction medicine
Moderators of Varenicline Treatment Effects in a Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial for Alcohol Dependence: An Exploratory Analysis.
Trial report in Journal of addiction medicine. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 38 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
38 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 59 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effectiveness of Alcohol Use Disorder Pharmacotherapies by Sex: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Drug and alcohol review · 2026Pooled it
- Evidence-based consensus guidelines for the pharmacological management of substance dependence: Recommendations from the British Association for Psychopharmacology.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2026Guideline
- Nicotine receptor partial agonists for smoking cessation.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2023Pooled it
- The role of nicotinic receptors in alcohol consumption.Pharmacological research · 2023Pooled it
- Efficacy of Varenicline in the Treatment of Alcohol Dependence: An Updated Meta-Analysis and Meta-Regression.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Pooled it
- Alcohol use disorder severity moderates clinical response to varenicline.Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research · 2021Trial
- Longitudinal Findings from a Randomized Clinical Trial of Varenicline for Alcohol Use Disorder with Comorbid Cigarette Smoking.Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research · 2019Trial
- Tobacco use during a clinical trial of mecamylamine for alcohol dependence: Medication effects on smoking and associations with reductions in drinking.Journal of substance abuse treatment · 2018Trial
- Nicotine-Use/Smoking Is Associated with the Efficacy of Naltrexone in the Treatment of Alcohol Dependence.Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research · 2018Trial
- Effect of Varenicline Combined With Medical Management on Alcohol Use Disorder With Comorbid Cigarette Smoking: A Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA psychiatry · 2018Trial
- Effects of varenicline on alcohol cue reactivity in heavy drinkers.Psychopharmacology · 2017Trial
- Effect of varenicline on major adverse liver outcomes in alcohol-associated liver disease: An exploratory analysis.Alcohol, clinical & experimental research · 2025Article
- Alcohol use disorder in alcohol-associated liver disease: Two sides of the same coin.Liver transplantation : official publication of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases and the International Liver Transplantation Society · 2024Article
- Antismoking agents do not contribute synergistically to semaglutide's ability to reduce alcohol intake in rats.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2023Article
- The Brief Alcohol Use Disorder Severity Scale: An Initial Validation Evaluation.Alcohol and alcoholism (Oxford, Oxfordshire) · 2022Article
- Smoking As an Outcome Moderator In the Treatment of Alcohol Use Disorders.Alcohol and alcoholism (Oxford, Oxfordshire) · 2022Review
- Additive roles of tobacco and cannabis co-use in relation to delay discounting in a sample of heavy drinkers.Psychopharmacology · 2022Article
- Review
- Pharmacotherapies and personalized medicine for alcohol use disorder: a review.Pharmacogenomics · 2020Review
- Searching for Personalized Medicine for Binge Drinking Smokers: Smoking Cessation Using Varenicline, Nicotine Patch, or Combination Nicotine Replacement Therapy.Journal of studies on alcohol and drugs · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesTo explore whether varenicline (Chantix) showed more efficacy in treating certain subgroups of patients. In a recent multisite trial, varenicline was shown to be effective in reducing drinking in alcohol-dependent patients, both smokers and nonsmokers. Given the heterogeneity among alcohol-dependent patients, secondary analyses were conducted to determine whether certain subgroups responded more favorably than others to treatment with varenicline.
methodsData were drawn from a phase 2 randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled multisite 13-week trial of varenicline in alcohol-dependent patients (Litten et al., 2013). Seventeen moderator variables were selected for exploratory testing on the basis of theoretical and scientific interest.
resultsOf the 17 moderator variables assessed, 4 were statistically significant, including cigarettes per day reduction, treatment drinking goal, years drinking regularly, and age of the patient. Two other variables—the type of adverse events experienced by patients and the severity of alcohol-related consequences—seemed to moderate the varenicline treatment effect at borderline statistical significance. Individuals who reduced the number of cigarettes per day experienced a significant effect from varenicline in reducing drinking, whereas those who did not change or who increased their number of cigarettes observed no beneficial effect. Reviewing the moderators related to severity, varenicline seemed to have greater efficacy than placebo among less severely dependent patients.
conclusionsVarenicline seems to be more efficacious in certain subgroups, particularly in those who reduced their smoking and in the "less severe" patient. Additional studies are warranted to confirm the results of these exploratory analyses.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.