Gabapentin Helps Alcoholics Drink Less
A report in the May 28 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience, rperts that gabapentin (aka Neurontin), a drug often prescribed for chronic pain and seizures, helps to decrease alcohol intake in alcohol addicted rats by improving chemical communication between brain cells, that is affected by chronic alcohol use.
The central amygdala, a component of the brain that influences feelings of stress and fear, helps in controlling alcohol consumption. Most central amygdala brain cells use a chemical called GABA, which is an inhibitory neurotransmitter. Alcoholism has been associated with the strengthening of inhibitory GABA synapses in the amygdala.
Gabapentin ( aka Neurontin) is chemically akin to GABA and increases GABA neurotransmission. Alcoholics have been treated with, gabapentin which can treat alcohol withdrawal and decrease alcohol intake and cravings after detoxification. The means by which gabapentin works in the brain to decrease alcohol dependence has been unknown.
Dr, Marisa Roberto, PhD, from The Scripps Research Institute, gave rats alcoholism or alcohol dependence by chronically exposing them to ethanol in aerosol form or in their food. The researchers then tested the quantity of alcohol that the rats voluntarily consumed and looked at nerve cell communication in the central amygdala portion of their brain.
Gabapentin decreased alcohol consumption in rats chronically exposed to alcohol, Gabapentin did not affect rats that were that had not become chronically dependent on alcohol. Gabapentin decreased alcohol consumption in alcohol-dependent rats regardless of how it was administered to the rats.
“What I find to be important about this paper is that gabapentin’s effect on alcohol consumption is only seen in alcohol-dependent rats,” said Julie Blendy, PhD, at the University of Pennsylvania, an expert unaffiliated with the study. “For me, this speaks volumes to the addiction field, in that therapeutic targets for addiction—which have been few and far between—may be missed when examined in animal studies that use only minor exposures of alcohol,” said Blendy.
Gabapentin appeared to fix the abnormal cellular effects of long term alcohol exposure. Gabapentin and alcohol both increase GABA neurve cell transmission in the amygdala of the normal rats, but in alcohol-dependent rats, gabapentin reduced it, suggesting that altered GABA neurotransmission is key to alcohol dependence.
In the study, gabapentin and chronic alcohol exposure both affected GABA B (GABAB) receptors. The authors believe that alcohol abuse alters the function of these receptors, and gabapentin may be able to counteract alcohol dependence by regulating their function.
It is likely that gabapentin which is a safe , well established drug could be used in humans to treat current and recovering alcoholics.
