Among the various drugs used for alcohol addiction treatment, acamprosate is one of the most popular. This drug was approved by the FDA as far back as in 1989 and since then it become quite prominently used in alcohol addiction treatment therapies. Chemically the drug is 3-Acetamidopropane-1-sulfonic acid and is sold in the US under the brand name of Campral, retailed by Forest Laboratories. The FDA approval encourages alcoholics to get this drug over the counter and use it for their treatment methods.

However, it is very important to know the exact effects of acamprosate in the body of alcoholics. When the FDA approved the drug, they maintained that the exact mechanism of acamprosate in the human body was not yet known properly, but there was definitely more than a placebo effect in treated alcoholics who wanted to abstain from the drink. Today, acamprosate is prescribed to reduce the urge that alcohol creates even after an alcohol abuse treatment, but it has no effect on the withdrawal symptoms that the substance causes when abstinence is conducted.

Another important thing to know about acamprosate use in alcohol addiction treatment is that this drug needs to be used with other treatment measures like support group therapy and aftercare counseling, because individually it will be significantly less effective.

But acamprosate must be used with supervision, at least initially, because it can cause a host of side-effects in users. Some of the more adverse side effects that it can cause include rapid heartbeats, blood pressure variations and serious allergic reactions.