A literature review was conducted on July 1, 2017 and it was repeated on June 15, 2018. To provide wide coverage of available studies, we searched PubMed (Pharmacological Treatment AND Alcohol Use Disorder AND Humans AND Meta-analysis) for English-language meta-analyses of medication trials published since January 1, 2008. From these, we selected comprehensive meta-analyses of multiple medications10–12 and meta-analyses of individual medications.13–18 In the absence of a meta-analysis of a specific medication’s effects, we selected individual randomized controlled trials (RCTs), prioritizing multi-center RCTs,19 as they are more likely than single-site RCTs20 to be representative of the medication’s effects. To estimate the frequency of adverse events, we also prioritized meta-analyses,14,15,21,22 and when none was available, selected multi-center RCTs.23–25 Data presented in this article were obtained directly from published literature and not synthesized for the review.
