New Medication for Alcoholism Might Already Exist

An inexpensive medicine for blood pressure and angina might be an effective medication for alcoholism.

Pindolol

The drug, pindolol, has proven effective in preclinical trials with rats. The results may or may not apply to humans. It’s clearly too early to celebrate. Many promising leads in treating alcoholism have failed to materialize.

Pindolol is already approved for use by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat blood pressure and angina. That approval should speed its approval for use in human clinical trials. Some doctors might also choose to use it “off-label” as a medication for alcoholism before that.

Approved Medications

Three drugs (acamprosate, disulfiram, and naltrexone) are already being used with some success.

Acamprosate
This is sold as Campral. It reduces discomforts often had by alcoholics after they stop drinking. These typically include anxiety, sweating and sleep problems.

Disulfiram
This is sold as Antabuse and Antabus. It causes a sever negative reaction if alcohol is consumed. This helps people quit drinking. People can drink normally if the don’t take it.

Naltrexone
This is sold as Revia, Depade and Vivitrol. This blocks pleasure from a high when drinking.

The Sinclair Method

The Sinclair Method uses naltrexone for alcoholism treatment. It enables most alcoholics to drink in moderation. The method uses a pleasure blocker prevents the drinker from enjoying alcohol. That reduces the craving.

The Sinclair Method treatment lasts for three to 15 months. After that, the patient needs to take the med before drinking. Otherwise, the pleasure extinction will reverse itself.

More about Pindolol

All drugs have interactions and side effects. Pindolol should not be used with certain meds. Doing so might cause serious interactions.

Pindolol is marketed in the U.S. as Visken and in Canada as Alti-Pindolol.

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