New Drug Addiction Overcome Alcohol

CHICAGO - Research to find drugs to overcome alcohol addiction continues. The experts in the United States recently claimed that a new type of drug known to inhibit the brain's stress response is also useful to help addicts overcome their dependence by simply pressing a desire generated stress (Craving) is a big swig of alcohol.

In the market today is available drug called Revia is used to treat alcohol dependence by reducing the body's ability to enjoy the intoxicating effects.

But the new drug, called LY686017 is working with different mechanisms, namely reducing the effects of addiction to relieve stress situations that may encourage more addicts drank liquor.

According to Markus Heilig, clinical director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), who led the study, stress behaviors are important factors that cause the phenomenon of the vicious circle of alcoholism.

¨ This is because the loss due to alcohol can cause depression and increase the sensitivity of the situation as sres an argument with a spouse or stress at work. Alcohol is a bad drug because it can make you feel better but encourage you to feel the worst when he does not drink it, "said Heilig seperit quoted by AFP, Sunday (17 / 2).

The drugs tested Heilig and his team studied the impact of this type of receptor in the brain called the Neurokinin 1 Receptor (NK1R) that affect responses to stress are connected with the behavior. This drug actually has shown its ability to reduce anxiety, but not marketed because of inconsistent results.

Heilig and his research team first examined the effectiveness of this drug in mice, before mengujicobanya in 50 alcoholic patients who suffer from anxiety problems and have undergone detoxification. During his research, dozens of these patients treated at the clinic for four weeks.

Among the patients, half given a placebo while others provided the original drug. The desire was so strong (Craving) was decreased in all clinic patients and appeared minimal in most patients until the end of the study period.

But once in the patients given the drug, the improvement was more obvious when measured through the questionnaire, physician examination, the tests imposed when faced with situations of social stress, and when asked to touch the bottle and smell their favorite alcohol.

¨ Interestingly, there was no effect on anxiety or depression psikoptologi indicating that this progress may seem specific to the process in the brain associated with alcoholism, "said researcher who published his findings in Science Express.

For the next step, researchers plan a larger study conducted to determine whether this drug can help alcoholics who do not suffer from anxiety problems.