Trial reportNeuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology2021
Effects of topiramate on neural responses to alcohol cues in treatment-seeking individuals with alcohol use disorder: preliminary findings from a randomized, placebo-controlled trial.
Trial report in Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 3 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
15 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 29 citations in OpenAlex.
- Functional magnetic response imaging predictors of alcohol use disorder treatment outcome: a systematic review.Alcohol and alcoholism (Oxford, Oxfordshire) · 2026Pooled it
- Cue-Elicited Brain Activity and Treatment Outcomes in Substance Use Disorders: A Meta-Analysis.JAMA network open · 2025Pooled it
- A meta-analysis of the neural substrates of monetary reward anticipation and outcome in alcohol use disorder.Human brain mapping · 2023Pooled it
- High- and low-dose topiramate for the treatment of persons with alcohol use disorder who smoke cigarettes: A randomized control trial.Alcohol, clinical & experimental research · 2025Trial
- Neural cue reactivity and intrinsic functional connectivity in individuals with alcohol use disorder following treatment with topiramate or naltrexone.Psychopharmacology · 2025Trial
- A Randomized Clinical Trial of Prolonged Exposure Therapy With and Without Topiramate for Comorbid PTSD and Alcohol Use Disorder.The American journal of psychiatry · 2025Trial
- Topiramate decreases the salience of motivationally relevant visual cues among smokers with alcohol use disorder.Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research · 2022Trial
- Learning Mechanisms in Alcohol Use Disorders.Addiction biology · 2026Review
- The alcohol cue-exposure paradigm as a screening tool for alcohol use disorder medication development: A critical review.Alcohol, clinical & experimental research · 2025Review
- Investigating pharmacotherapies for alcohol use disorder using Drosophila melanogaster.Alcohol, clinical & experimental research · 2025Article
- White matter neural substrates in alcohol dependence with genetic risk and their role in pathological reward process.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Testing pharmacotherapies for alcohol use disorder with cue exposure paradigms: A systematic review and quantitative synthesis of human laboratory trial methodology.Alcohol, clinical & experimental research · 2023Review
- GABAergic signaling in alcohol use disorder and withdrawal: pathological involvement and therapeutic potential.Frontiers in neural circuits · 2023Review
- How laboratory studies of cigarette craving can inform the experimental alcohol craving literature.Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research · 2022Review
- Alcohol-Related Liver Disease: Basic Mechanisms and Clinical Perspectives.International journal of molecular sciences · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Topiramate, a GABA/glutamate modulator, is efficacious in reducing alcohol consumption, though the mechanisms underlying this effect are not well characterized. This study analyzed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data from 22 heavy drinkers enrolled in a 12-week placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trial of topiramate to examine the effects of topiramate on alcohol cue-elicited brain responses, craving, and heavy drinking in individuals with DSM-5 alcohol use disorder. Patients were randomized to receive either topiramate (maximal daily dosage of 200 mg/day) or placebo and were administered an fMRI alcohol cue-reactivity task at baseline (before starting medication) and after 6 weeks of double-blind treatment. Analyses compared the topiramate (n = 12) and placebo (n = 8) groups on (1) the change in brain responses during alcohol cue exposure (vs non-alcohol cues) within five a priori regions of interest related to reward-the bilateral and medial orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and bilateral ventral striatum (VS) and (2) change in craving and heavy drinking days (HDDs) from baseline and scan 2. Topiramate, relative to placebo, reduced alcohol cue-elicited activation of the left VS, bilateral OFC, and medial OFC, alcohol cue-elicited craving, and HDDs between baseline and 6 weeks of treatment. The reduction in alcohol cue-elicited activation in the medial OFC correlated with reductions in craving, and reduced activation in the right VS, right OFC, and medial OFC correlated with the reduction in HDD. This preliminary study provides evidence that topiramate's attenuation of alcohol cue-elicited brain activation and craving are key elements of the drug's neurobiological mechanism of action in reducing heavy drinking.
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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.