Gender differences in response to sertraline pharmacotherapy in Type A alcohol dependence

We previously established that Babor Type A "lower-risk/severity" alcoholics (n = 55) had better treatment response to fourteen weeks of sertraline (200 mg/day) than placebo, a finding not present for Type B "higher-risk/severity" alcoholics (n = 45). This exploratory study extended these results by examining the original sample for gender differences in response to sertraline pharmacotherapy. Type A alcoholic men, but not Type A alcoholic women, had consistently better outcomes with sertraline compared to placebo on several common drinking measures: time to relapse, days drinking, days drinking heavily, drinks per drinking day, and number of those continually abstinent. There were no significant differences in drinking with sertraline compared to placebo in Type B alcoholic men or women.