And at the same time from alcoholism
Medications "from the heart" can be effective in the fight against alcoholism
Julia Tisler, ERR
According to a new study, drugs for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases and high blood pressure may also be effective in combating alcohol consumption disorder.
The study, conducted by scientists from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), presents the results of experiments on mice and rats, as well as a cohort study on humans. The findings suggest that the drug Spironolactone may play a role in reducing alcohol consumption. The drug is used in clinical practice as a diuretic and for the treatment of conditions such as heart problems and high blood pressure.
"Combining the results of different types of studies and then finding similarities in these data gives us confidence that we could have discovered something potentially important from a scientific and clinical point of view. The results support further study of Spironolactone as a treatment for alcohol use disorder, a disease that affects millions of people in the United States," he said. Lorenzo Leggio, MD, Head of the Department of Clinical Psychoneuroendocrinology and Neuropsychopharmacology.
Currently, three drugs have been approved in the United States to treat alcohol use disorder, and they are effective and important means to help treat people with this disease. Given the diverse biological processes that contribute to alcohol use disorder, new medications are needed to provide a wider range of treatment options. Scientists are working to increase the number of pharmaceuticals that could be adapted to individual needs.
Previous studies have shown that mineralocorticoid receptors, which are located throughout the brain and other organs and help regulate the balance of fluid and electrolytes in the body, may play a role in alcohol consumption and cravings. Preclinical studies show that higher signaling of mineralocorticoid receptors contributes to an increase in alcohol consumption. The current study aimed to expand this line of research by testing Spironolactone, a drug with multiple actions including blocking mineralocorticoid receptors.
In experiments conducted on models of excessive alcohol consumption in mice and rats, researchers led by pharmacist Leandro Vendruscolo found that increasing the dose of Spironolactone reduces alcohol consumption in male and female animals without causing movement or coordination problems and without affecting their food or water intake.
In a parallel study that was part of this team's collaborative effort, researchers led by co-author Amy S. Justice, MD, Yale School of Medicine, examined the medical records of a large sample of people from the U.S. Veterans Affairs Health System to assess potential changes in alcohol use after Spironolactone was prescribed for its current clinical indications (for example, heart problems, high blood pressure). They found a significant association between treatment and a decrease in alcohol consumption, which was measured using a special test. It should be noted that the greatest effects were observed among those who reported severe episodic alcohol use before starting treatment with Spironolactone.
The study was led by scientists from the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health, and the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut.
A report on the new results is published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry (Farokhnia et al., Spironolactone as a potential new pharmacotherapy for alcohol use disorder: convergent evidence from rodent and human studies).
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