Drug to help alcoholics stay sober: study

Scientists are on track to find a more effective treatment for alcoholism, with the discovery that a hormone disorder drug could help drinkers stay sober.

Scientists are on track to find a more effective treatment for alcoholism, with the discovery that a hormone disorder drug could help drinkers stay sober.

According to researchers at the University of California - San Francisco-affiliated Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center, a drug prescribed for male and female infertility and menstrual disorders could hold the key to getting rid of the problem.

The study, reported in the journal Biological Psychiatry, showed that "alcoholic" rodents, when injected with the drug cabergoline, decreased their alcohol consumption and alcohol-seeking behavior and were less likely to relapse.

“This is encouraging,” said Dorit Ron, who led the study in the United States.

“It demonstrates that cabergoline is specific for alcohol, but does not affect general reward or pleasure. One of the problems with some existing drugs to treat alcoholism is a side effect that decreases pleasure, making compliance an obstacle to sobriety," underlined Ron, a principal investigator at the Gallo Center and associate professor of neurology at UCSF.

“We show that in mice and rats, a low dose of the drug is enough to reduce excessive alcohol consumption, alcohol seeking and relapse. The dose is similar to what is given to humans for the treatment of hyperprolactinemia,” he was quoted as saying by the Science Daily online.