Medicine cuts down fatal liver disease: researchers

Press, 7 December 1987, Page 9

Medicine cuts down fatal liver disease: researchers

NZPA-AP Boston A widely available medicine appears to significantly protect alcoholics from fatal liver disease, even when they continue to drink, a study has shown.

The drug, called propylthiouracil or P.T.U., cut in half the death rate among alcoholics who took it over two years, and was almost completely effective among those who drank the least, re-

searchers have reported.

However, experts warn that the medicine does not allow people to drink heavily, and the best way to avoid liver disease is to give up alcohol. PTU is normally used to treat overactive thyroid glands. Researchers at the Ad-, diction Research Foundation in Toronto found that it also seems to protect the liver from the poisonous effects of alcohol. “In the long term, it looks like P.T.U. is beneficial to patients, even though they continue to drink,” said Dr Jerome Zeldis, of Boston’s Beth Israel Hospital. ‘T’m very much tempted to try it on a few patients.” However, he and Dr Thomas LaMont, of Boston University School of Medicine, said that the drug did not help people who drank heavily. They should stop drinking completely. “The public has to hear that, because this could be used as a crutch to continue drinking.” The study, directed by Dr Hector Orrego, was

published in the “New England Journal of Medicine.” The researchers studied 310 alcoholics who had ‘ cirrhosis and other liver disease caused by drinking. • When they entered the programme, they drank at least the equivalent of 227 grams of whisky a day, or went on frequent binges. During the two-year study, half took P.T.U. pills twice a day, while the rest got placebos. Nearly all the men and women continued to drink. When the study was over, 13 per cent of the PTU patients had died, compared with 25 per cent of the comparison group. Those who drank least did best. The researchers measured alcohol levels in their urine and divided the patients into high and low drinking categories. The death rate was three per cent for low drinkers who took P.T.U. and 25 per cent for low drinkers who got dummy pills. It was 22 per cent for high drinkers who got P.T.U. and 26 per cent for those in the high-drinking group.