Chantix may effectual for drinkers too
July 12, 2007
If the recent research is to be believed that Chantix, which is approved to assist smokers in smoking cessation, may help drinkers in curtailing alcohol addiction as well.
Under the new research, rats educated to consume cut down their addiction by half after having consumed merely a single dose of Chantix, also recognized as Varenicline. So, scientists anticipated that the drug may also engender same results in humans.
"It will not work as a panacea, but these findings are exciting and worthwhile for us as currently just three treatments are accessible," said neuroscientist Selena Bartlett of UCSF's Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center in Emeryville, and head of the research. "We're hopeful that the preparation will be accepted as the fourth solution."
Developed by Pfizer, Chantix has been marketed for a year and has efficacy to function better than available medicine treatments devised for alcoholism.
Contrary to available drugs, the novel preparation doesn't suppress appetite. Under the study, when rats were not medicated with the drug, they reverted to the same level of drinking that they used to follow in stead of recoiling to high or excessive drinking which is common with current drug treatments.
In addition, Chantix’s efficacy doesn't diminish over time alike other drugs.
Furthermore, 90 percent of the new drug gets cleared from the body devoid of breakdown in the liver and so would ease further liver damage.
"I believe that the drug is promising" averred psychiatrist Markus Heilig, clinical director at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. "Our unmet medicinal requirements are enormous. The preparations that we usually use are not found very efficient in serious cases."
Other significant plus for varenicline is that it is already approved to be applied in humans as anti-smoking drug. And Bartlett is likely to commence clinical trials to study the drug's efficiency for the treatment of alcoholism in humans prior to the end of the year. |
