The triazolobenzodiazepine alprazolam is used extensively in the treatment of anxiety and panic disorders (Greenblatt and Wright 1993). A significant concentration-effect relationship for alprazolam has been suggested in the treatment of panic disorder; optimal reduction of anxiety occurs in the plasma concentration range of 20-40 ng/ml, whereas the central nervous system (CNS) depressant side effects increase progressively at higher plasma concentrations (Greenblatt and Wright 1993).Alprazolam is metabolized primarily by the hepatic microsomal oxidation, yielding 4-and ␣ -hydroxyalprazolam as its principal metabolites (Greenblatt and Wright 1993). Previous studies have suggested that neither cytochrome P450 (CYP) 2D6 (Bertilsson et al. 1988) nor CYP2C19 (Otani et al. 1997a) is involved in the metabolism of alprazolam. Meanwhile, the in vitro study by von Moltke et al. (1994) has shown that ketoconazole, an inhibitor of CYP3A4 (Olkkola et al. 1994;Watkins 1994), inhibits the 4-and ␣ -hydroxylation of alprazolam, suggesting that alprazolam is metabolized by CYP3A4. Furthermore, Yasui et al. (1996) have reported that erythromycin, an inhibitor of CYP3A4 (Olkkola et al. 1993;Watkins 1994) Carbamazepine has been used increasingly in the treatment of psychiatric disorders (Siris 1993;Post et al. 1994;Otani et al. 1996a). However, it has been suggested that carbamazepine induces the metabolism of several psychotropic drugs (Arana et al. 1986;Backman et al. 1996;Otani et al. 1996b;1997b) by a not fully characterized enzyme induction. Previous studies have suggested that carbamazepine induces CYP3A4 (Wietholtz et al. 1989;Pirmohamed et al. 1994;Yue et al. 1994), but not CYP1A2 (Wietholtz et al. 1989), CYP2D6 (Yue et al. 1994) nor UDP-glucuronosyltransferases (Yue et al. 1994). Therefore, carbamazepine may decrease plasma concentration of alprazolam by inducing its metabolism. In fact, Arana et al. (1988) has reported that carbamazepine decreased plasma concentration of alprazolam in one psychiatric patient. However, there has been no systematic study on the effect of carbamazepine on the plasma concentration and/or metabolism of alprazolam.Therefore, we studied the effect of carbamazepine on the single oral dose pharmacokinetics of alprazolam in healthy volunteers. We also expected that the present study would provide further evidence for the involvement of CYP3A4 in the metabolism of alprazolam.
METHODS
SubjectsThe subjects were seven healthy male volunteers. The mean Ϯ SD of age was 32.7 Ϯ 6.6 years, and that of body weight was 60.9 Ϯ 4.6 kg. Three subjects were smokers ( Ն 10 cigarettes/day), and the remaining four were nonsmokers. The study protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of Hirosaki University Hospital, and each subject gave his written informed consent before the study.
ProtocolThe study was conducted in a double-blind, randomized crossover manner, with at least a 6-week washout period. The subjects were allocated randomly to one of the two treatment sequences, placebo-carbamazepine or carbamazepin...
