• Percent days abstinent from pre-treatment to in or post treatment
  
• Adherence to medicine
  
• Drop-out/loss to follow-up rate
  

• Percent days complete abstinent
  
• Percent heavy drinking days
  
• Clinical Global Impression
  

Campral (acamprosate) has been shown to reduce drinking days in alcohol dependent patients and promote abstinence, with few reported side effects. A limitation of these studies, however, has been their lack of generalizability due to restrictive inclusion and exclusion criteria. Furthermore, most of the previous studies of acamprosate have been conducted in Europe, in a different treatment setting from the typical American Family Medicine center, where alcohol dependent patients are most likely to be first identified in the U.S.

The present study is designed to determine the efficacy of Campral (acamprosate)for alcohol dependence in a Family Medicine setting using minimal psychotherapeutic interventions—as would also likely occur in a primary care setting. The study will be a 12-week, double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized trial comparing 666 mg Campral (acamprosate) t.i.d. to placebo in patients at the UNC Family Medicine Center with alcohol dependence.

Subjects will be seen by Family Medicine physicians and receive brief motivational interventions. Primary efficacy will be determined by measuring % days abstinent and secondary outcomes include rates of complete abstinence, % heavy drinking days, CGI and GGT in the Campral (acamprosate) group compared to the placebo group.