Excessive long term alcohol consumption can lead to dependence on alcohol. This means that when a person stops drinking suddenly he or she experiences withdrawal symptoms. The main goals for clinical management of alcohol withdrawal are to minimize the severity of symptoms and facilitate entry into a treatment program, so that the person can achieve and maintain abstinence from alcohol. Symptoms of withdrawal range from tremor, nausea, anxiety, restlessness and insomnia to more severe effects such as seizures, hallucinations, agitation and delirium. Progression to coma and cardiac arrest is possible. Medications that are intended to help people who are dependent on alcohol to withdraw from it include benzodiazepines, anticonvulsants and gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB). GHB was first available as a health food and body-building supplement, but reports of adverse events led to its withdrawal for that purpose.

Thirteen randomised controlled trials involving 648 participants were included in this review . Eleven of these were conducted in Italy. However, there is not enough reliable evidence from the research that has been done to date to be confident of a difference between GHB and placebo , or to determine reliably if GHB is more or less effective than other drugs for the treatment of alcohol withdrawl or the prevention of relapses.

Six trials with a total of 286 participants evaluated the effectiveness of GHB in reducing withdrawal syndrome. These compared the drug with a variety of other interventions, making it impossible to use them all in a single analysis . One study suggests that GHB might reduce withdrawal symptoms more than a placebo , but this is based on a very small number of patients. No strong differences were observed between GHB and benzodiazepines or Clomethiazole. In the other comparisons, the differences were not statistically significant .