Breakthroughs In Alcohol Treatment Medications: Ondansetron
David Richards
Studies have found that medications that lower the level of serotonin in the brain may help in alcohol treatment. This method offers a short-term solution for severe alcoholics.
Ondansetron is a drug used to stop nausea that has been found to be effective against drinking. According to researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center, ondansetron helps those who develop alcoholism before the age of 25 to quit drinking and keep off the bottle.
Modern researchers see the cause of alcoholism as biological. There are certain biological tendencies, they claim, that make an individual susceptible to alcoholism and other types of drug addiction.
An experiment was conducted using 271 volunteers in Texas in the early 1990's. Most of these volunteers were white, middle-aged males who were looking for ways to quit drinking. For eleven weeks, half the group was given ondansetron, and the other half were given a placebo. During the course of the experiment, all received group therapy sessions every week.
Throughout the study, the participants were monitored. Alcohol consumption was measured by blood and urine tests. Participants also did self-reports. Around 60 percent of the participants did not make it through the 11 weeks, but it was noted that all of them were able to cut down greatly by the end of the experiment.
The report showed that, among those who finished the study, participants who had started drinking and developed problems at an earlier age improved the most. This has raised more questions about this biological basis for alcoholism.
Those who took ondansetron were able to lower their intake, down to 1 1/2 drinks per day on average. Those who took the placebo were able to cut down to an average of about 3 1/2 drinks per day. This, too, supports the drug's effectiveness.
For those who began to drink later in life, no improvement was shown. This may have something to do with how alcoholism develops.
The way ondansetron works is that it blocks serotonin. This, in turn, has an effect on other neurotransmitters, such as dopamine. It is now known exactly which chemicals in the brain cause alcoholism, but reducing the activity of these neurotransmitters has been shown to be effective.
This is just one of many new breakthroughs that help us to understand how alcoholism works. Each new study sheds light on the biological basis of alcoholism. Through developments such as these, we may yet find an effective method to treat alcoholism.
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