Kudzu is famous in the American South as the vine that eats everything: fences, sheds, even whole trees. In traditional Chinese medicine, its root has been used for centuries. Now a carefully run trial suggests an extract of it may help some people cut down on binge drinking.
The trial
Researchers led by Glenn-Milo Santos at the University of California, San Francisco, recruited 120 adults with alcohol use disorder who binge drank at least once a week. Binge drinking here means five or more drinks in one go for men, or four or more for women.
Half got kudzu extract and half got a look-alike placebo. Both groups also had short weekly counselling sessions. The idea was to take the capsule about two and a half hours before an expected heavy-drinking occasion, or when cravings hit, for 12 weeks. The results were published on 4 November in The American Journal of Psychiatry.
The results
At the start, both groups averaged about 2.15 binge days a week. By the end, the kudzu group was down to 1.42, while the placebo group was at 2.06. That's a 27% bigger drop. The share of weeks with any binge drinking fell from 88% to 58% with kudzu, compared with 88% to 81% on placebo. The improvement was still there three months after people stopped taking it.
Side effects were similar in both groups, and none of the serious ones were linked to the treatment.
The fine print
People reported their own drinking, which isn't perfect, and some lab measures of alcohol didn't change much except in people who took kudzu often. The trial was run at a single site, and the researchers say bigger studies are needed. Kudzu supplements sold in shops can also vary a lot in what they actually contain.
Still, the need is real. Fewer than one in ten people with alcohol use disorder ever get medication for it. “Our goal is to expand that toolkit,” Santos said. Anyone thinking of trying kudzu should talk to a doctor first, especially if they take other medicines.