Psychiatric complications of disulfiram treatment

Abstract

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 dose of disulfiram used presently and in the absence of predisposing factors.