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| Stress Medication to Help Alleviate Alcohol Cravings |
| News Briefs - News Briefs | |
| Written by Jenna Bensoussan | |
| Monday, 25 February 2008 | |
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An NK1R-blocking drug, known to inhibit the stress response in the brain, is said to provide an alternative to those addicted to alcohol consumption. In a scientific study, researchers found that those who received the drug reported about 50 percent fewer alcohol cravings. Lead study investigator Dr. Markus Heilig, clinical director of the NIH's National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), says standard drug treatments to help curb drinking urges worked by reducing the pleasure that alcoholics get from drinking. This drug takes a different approach — reducing the anxiety that leads many alcoholics to reach for the bottle in the first place. "It's a fairly new approach to treating alcoholism treatment," Heilig says. "We're really trying to open up a new category of treatments that would help most people." Alcoholism experts not directly involved with the study say the finding offers tantalizing clues for new treatment — as well as hints to the connection between anxiety and drinking urges. "This is a potentially important finding which indicates a novel mechanism for reducing craving in individuals who drink to reduce high anxiety," says Boris Tabakoff, professor and chairman of pharmacology at the University of Colorado at Denver.
But even if the findings eventually lead to an effective drug
treatment option for alcoholism, some experts say, there is no therapy
yet that provides a sure-fire, one-size-fits-all solution to alcohol
cravings.
--ABC News              |
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