Trial reportThe American journal of psychiatry2021
Effects of Gabapentin on Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex GABA and Glutamate Levels and Their Associations With Abstinence in Alcohol Use Disorder: A Randomized Clinical Trial.
Trial report in The American journal of psychiatry, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers, 2 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
19 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 27 citations in OpenAlex.
- The resting-state brain activity signatures for addictive disorders.Med (New York, N.Y.) · 2024Pooled it
- Brain functional connectivity in hyperthyroid patients: systematic review.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2024Pooled it
- Glutamate- and GABA-targeted drugs for Cc-occurring bipolar and alcohol use disorders: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study of N-acetylcysteine, gabapentin, and placebo.Translational psychiatry · 2026Trial
- Baseline gut microbiome and metabolites are correlated with changes in alcohol consumption in participants in a randomized Zonisamide clinical trial.Scientific reports · 2025Trial
- Gabapentin increases the abuse liability of alcohol alone and in combination with oxycodone in participants with co-occurring opioid and alcohol use disorder.Pharmacology, biochemistry, and behavior · 2022Trial
- Sleep as an Important Target or Modifier in Alcohol Use Disorder Clinical Treatment: Example From a Recent Gabapentin Randomized Clinical Trial.Journal of addiction medicineTrial
- A Novel Role of Dexmedetomidine in the Modulation of Morphine Reward Memory via γ-Aminobutyric Acid Transporter-1.Anesthesiology · 2026Article
- Review
- Fronto-striatal neurometabolite signatures of impulsivity in early abstinence from methamphetamine.NeuroImage. Clinical · 2026Article
- Effects of N-acetylcysteine treatment on frontal glutamate and GABA levels and associations with drinking quantity in people with co-occurring posttraumatic stress disorder and alcohol use disorder.Psychopharmacology · 2025Article
- Article
- Potential roles for vitamin D in preventing and treating impulse control disorders, behavioral addictions, and substance use disorders: A scoping review.Addiction neuroscience · 2025Article
- Alcohol Use Disorder and Chronic Pain: An Overlooked Epidemic.The American journal of psychiatry · 2024Review
- Impact of acquisition and modeling parameters on the test-retest reproducibility of edited GABA.NMR in biomedicine · 2024Article
- Quantifying GABA in Addiction: A Review of Proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Studies.Brain sciences · 2022Review
- Brain Correlates of the Alcohol Use Disorder Pharmacotherapy Response: A Systematic Review of Neuroimaging Studies.Brain sciences · 2022Review
- Off-label and investigational drugs in the treatment of alcohol use disorder: A critical review.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2022Review
- Helpful or Harmful? The Therapeutic Potential of Medications with Varying Degrees of Abuse Liability in the Treatment of Substance Use Disorders.Current addiction reports · 2022Review
- Extrasynaptic therapeutic targets in substance use and stress disorders.Trends in pharmacological sciences · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveAlthough gabapentin has demonstrated efficacy in mitigating alcohol withdrawal symptoms and preventing relapse drinking in individuals with alcohol use disorder (AUD), the neurobiological mechanisms of action underlying these therapeutic effects remain unknown. The present study evaluated changes in GABA and glutamate levels in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) as candidate mechanisms of action.
methodsIn a 16-week randomized clinical trial, 68 adults with AUD, including a history of alcohol withdrawal syndrome, received 1,200 mg/day of gabapentin (N=37) or placebo (N=31) and nine medical management visits after ≥72 hours of abstinence. Proton MR spectroscopy (
resultsThe effects of gabapentin on GABA and glutamate levels were significantly associated with participants' percent days abstinent during early treatment. Specifically, gabapentin was associated with greater increases in glutamate and greater decreases in GABA levels in participants who remained mostly or entirely abstinent, and yet the opposite in participants who drank on more than half of the days preceding the second scan. Furthermore, gabapentin-treated participants with greater increases in glutamate levels during early treatment had significantly more percent days abstinent across the remainder of the study, relative to placebo-treated participants.
conclusionsIn addition to providing insight into the mechanisms through which gabapentin may promote abstinence in individuals with AUD, this study also provides evidence for a biomarker of efficacious treatment that may be used to evaluate other glutamatergic or GABAergic medications for AUD and related conditions.
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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.