people who develop drinking problems early in life were more likely to sober with the help of a new drug.
alcoholism is difficult for anyone to hit, but people who develop early in life are less likely to sober up. Now a study shows that a new drug to help the alcoholic drink less. The drug does not work for alcohol late onset, adding the evidence for different types of alcohol.
The drug called ondansetron, blocking a receptor that responds to the neurotransmitter serotonin, which appears to play a role alcoholism. Ondansetron looked promising in a preliminary study soft volunteers. The 16 men who participated indicated that the drug has stifled the pleasure of drinking and curbed their desire for alcohol. "Conducting a clinical trial was the next logical step," said Bankole Johnson psychiatrist at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.
The team of Johnson tested ondansetron in the early and late onset alcoholics, defined as those who developed their drinking problems before or after age 25 among 271 alcoholics, some received ondansetron and others received placebo for 11 weeks. early onset alcoholics who got the drug were 20 more days without alcohol than the placebo. When they did consume alcohol, they drank about 40% less, the team reports in the August 23 issue of Journal of the American Medical Association. The drug has not changed late alcohol consumption habits.
This difference in efficiency is important, said Henry Kranzler psychiatrist from the University of Connecticut School of Medicine in Farmington, because it suggests that early alcohol and late-onset are distinct subtypes. Indeed, other drugs that affect serotonin such as Zoloft and Prozac, appear to have varying effects on the disease. "This is an area that seems to come of age," said Kranzler efforts to find drugs to treat different types of alcoholism.
Related Sites
National Institute on alcohol abuse and alcoholism Addiction Division
alcohol and drugs, University of Texas Health science Center
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