SynthesisAddiction biology2017
Effects of naltrexone on alcohol self-administration and craving: meta-analysis of human laboratory studies.
Synthesis in Addiction biology, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT04738773 (Double Blind 12-week Controlled Experiment With Two Groups of Pathological Gamblers, One Taking Active Drug), which is not on this map. Cited by 53 papers, 6 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.
Double Blind 12-week Controlled Experiment With Two Groups of Pathological Gamblers, One Taking Active Drug (Naltrexone) and the Other Receiving Placebo.Patters Patterns of Visual Tracking Will be Acessed on Both Groups Prior and During Tratment in Order to Predict Treatment Response
Who cites it
53 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 95 citations in OpenAlex.
- Are medication effects on subjective response to alcohol and cue-induced craving associated? A meta regression study.Psychopharmacology · 2023Pooled it
- The Added Value of Pharmacotherapy to Cognitive Behavior Therapy And Vice Versa in the Treatment of Alcohol Use Disorders: A Systematic Review.Alcohol and alcoholism (Oxford, Oxfordshire) · 2022Pooled it
- Effects of varenicline and bupropion on laboratory smoking outcomes: Meta-analysis of randomized, placebo-controlled human laboratory studies.Addiction biology · 2022Pooled it
- Systematic review and meta-analysis of the moderating effect of rs1799971 in OPRM1, the mu-opioid receptor gene, on response to naltrexone treatment of alcohol use disorder.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2020Pooled it
- Naltrexone effects on subjective responses to alcohol in the human laboratory: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Addiction biology · 2019Pooled it
- Effects of naltrexone on alcohol self-administration and craving: meta-analysis of human laboratory studies.Addiction biology · 2017Pooled it
- Naltrexone Is Superior to Placebo for Abstinence and Craving Reduction in Alcohol-Associated Cirrhosis: NAL-CI Trial.Liver international : official journal of the International Association for the Study of the Liver · 2026Trial
- Identifying responders to gabapentin for the treatment of alcohol use disorder: an exploratory machine learning approach.Alcohol and alcoholism (Oxford, Oxfordshire) · 2025Trial
- A practice quit model to test early efficacy of medications for alcohol use disorder in a randomized clinical trial.Psychopharmacology · 2024Trial
- Using naltrexone to validate a human laboratory test system to screen new medications for alcoholism (TESMA)- a randomized clinical trial.Translational psychiatry · 2023Trial
- Within- and between-person effects of naltrexone on the subjective response to alcohol and craving: A daily diary investigation.Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research · 2022Trial
- Reward drinking and naltrexone treatment response among young adult heavy drinkers.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2021Trial
- Nalmefene attenuates neural alcohol cue-reactivity in the ventral striatum and subjective alcohol craving in patients with alcohol use disorder.Psychopharmacology · 2021Trial
- Bupropion and Naltrexone in Methamphetamine Use Disorder.The New England journal of medicine · 2021Trial
- Influence of n-acetylcysteine maintenance on the pharmacodynamic effects of oral ethanol.Pharmacology, biochemistry, and behavior · 2020Trial
- Advancing Precision Medicine for Alcohol Use Disorder: Replication and Extension of Reward Drinking as a Predictor of Naltrexone Response.Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research · 2019Trial
- Naltrexone and alcohol effects on craving for cigarettes in heavy drinking smokers.Experimental and clinical psychopharmacology · 2019Trial
- Real-time assessment of alcohol craving and naltrexone treatment responsiveness in a randomized clinical trial.Addictive behaviors · 2018Trial
- Could alcohol-free and low-alcohol beverages be used to extinguish alcohol cravings?Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2026Article
- Histamine H3 Receptor as a target for alcohol use disorder: challenging the predictability of animal models for clinical translation in drug development.Translational psychiatry · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Randomized clinical trials have established the efficacy of naltrexone for reducing quantity of alcohol consumption and incidence of relapse to heavy drinking. To evaluate putative treatment mechanisms, human laboratory studies have examined naltrexone's effects on alcohol responses and self-administration during short-term medication protocols. Results from these studies are inconsistent and have yet to be examined in aggregate. This meta-analysis aimed to quantify naltrexone's effects on alcohol self-administration and craving in the context of placebo-controlled human laboratory trials. Potential moderators of medication effects were also examined. Meta-analyses of alcohol self-administration (k = 9, N = 490) and craving (k = 16, N = 748) confirmed that, under controlled experimental conditions, naltrexone reduces the quantity of consumption (Hedges' g = -.277, SE = .074, 95 percent CI = -.421, -.133, p < .001) and magnitude of self-reported craving (g = -.286, SE = .066, 95 percent CI = -.416, -.156, p < .001) relative to placebo. Subgroup and moderation analyses found no evidence that effect sizes differed by study population (dependent versus non-dependent drinkers), laboratory paradigm or duration of medication exposure. These results substantiate prior evidence for reductions in event-level craving and consumption as potential treatment mediators, also establishing effect sizes to inform future human laboratory trials. From a clinical perspective, these results may provide additional evidence regarding naltrexone's efficacy in the context of acute or subacute dosing regimens.
Indexed as
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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.