Two of the blinded studies included an open-label and blind design, an admirable originality [27], [39]. In the blind portion, while both groups were informed that they were being given disulfiram, the authors dissimulated the dose: one group received 250 mg and the other received 1 mg, a pharmacologically ineffective dose. In the blind portion, as could be expected, no significant difference between disulfiram and the control groups was found. But surprisingly, even in the open-label portion comparing disulfiram to no disulfiram, there were no differences between the groups. Compliance problems rendered the results quasi meaningless. In the larger study (n = 605) [27], only 20% of the 577 who completed the study were compliant. It is noteworthy that a subset of cooperative drinkers reported significantly fewer drinking days when given disulfiram. Supervision might have made a substantial difference in the results of this study and had an important effect on our meta-analysis, as this study alone comprised 26% of the cumulative total of subjects.
