Thu May 15, 2003 07:43 PM ET
LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists said on Friday they had discovered that an anti-epilepsy drug also dramatically reduces alcoholics' craving for a drink.
Topiramate, which is produced by Johnson & Johnson under the name Topamax, was approved in 1996 in the United States for patients who suffer epileptic seizures.
But researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio reported in The Lancet medical journal that new study findings show it also aids abstinence from alcohol.
Researchers warned, however, that the drug is not without its side effects. It can create a reaction similar to aphasia, defined as "an impairment of language, affecting the production or comprehension of speech and the ability to read or write." Symptoms include stumbling over pronunciation and the repeated use of grammatically senseless phrases.
Some reporters noted that the drug appears to have been field-tested in Texas, a state which in 2000 exported its best-known recovering drinker to Washington, DC. Asked if there was a connection, White House Aids said "certainly not."
Other side effects of the drug include an irrational fixation on tax cuts and a propensity to seek military solutions to complicated global problems.