Naltrexone Test Set for Schizophrenic Alcoholics

The rate of alcoholism in people who have been diagnosed as schizophrenics is much higher than in the general population, and a New York psychiatrist plans research to see if Naltrexone is effective in treating the problem.

Dr. Steven L. Batki, a SUNY Upstate Medical University psychiatrist, has received a $2.2 million NIH grant to be used in research to determine if naltrexone works in getting people with schizophrenia to stop or reduce drinking. Naltrexone, first developed to treat heroin addicts, was approved for use in treating alcoholism in 1995.

Over the next four years, Batki and colleagues will conduct the study with 150 patients at Hutchings Psychiatric Center, the VA Medical Center's mental health clinic and St. Joseph's Hospital Health Center outpatient mental health clinic.

"People with serious mental illness who drink have twice the problems of people with just serious mental illness," Batki told The Post-Standard. "When you are drinking, it makes your hallucinations worse, it makes memory and concentration, which are probably already bad, worse. It also makes people less likely to show up for doctor appointments."

"It's a major public health problem because this segment of the population is so impaired they need chronic psychiatric treatment and assistance in their lives in the form of social workers and case managers," Batki said.