
What Medications Are Available for Alcohol Use Disorder?
This lesson from Yale's Addiction Treatment: Clinical Skills for Healthcare Providers course covers pharmacological options for treating Alcohol Use Disorder. The instructor walks through the four FDA-approved medications, oral and injectable Naltrexone, Acamprosate, and Disulfiram, explaining their mechanisms, dosing, and side effects, then covers two off-label options, Topiramate and Gabapentin. The lesson addresses how to prescribe safely for patients with liver or kidney comorbidities and how to match medication choice to a patient's treatment goal, whether that is harm reduction or full abstinence. Part of a Yale course built around a model patient case performed by actors and taught by seven Yale instructors, aimed at preparing clinicians to screen, diagnose, and manage substance use disorder treatment with evidence-based, compassionate care.