The Feasibility of Effective Psychopharmacological Treatments for Alcoholism

Summary The effects of lithium, anxiolytics, dopaminergic compounds, serotonin uptake inhibitors, opiates, opiate antagonists, and alcohol‐sensitizing drugs on the alcohol consumption of human alcoholics and laboratory animals are reviewed. There is increasing evidence that each of these classes of drugs might be beneficial in reducing alcohol abuse, including recent controlled studies on alcoholics with lithium, serotonin uptake Mockers, and disefulram. The usefulness of all of the current drugs, however, appears limited, and the ideal drug for use in treating alcoholism awaits discovery. Nevertheless, the fact that some drugs acting on the central nervous system are able to promote abstinence supports the feasibility of psychopharmacological treatment for alcoholism. Furthermore, since the known drugs that appear beneficial against human alcohol abuse also suppress voluntary alcohol selection by experimental animals, it seems likely that studies with animals could be used for screening other potentially effective drugs.