Study of the Opioid Modulation of the Effect of Alcohol on the Dopaminergic Reward System
Status:
Terminated
Trial end date:
2017-12-13
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
About 10% of the calculable loss of health and quality of life in industrial countries can be
attributed to excessive alcohol consumption. Behavioural pharmacological, genetic and
clinical studies on alcohol dependence suggest a multifactorial model for the development of
the disease, which ascribes an important role in the development of the disease to genetic
variance, educational style and continued substance use. Animal and human experimental
studies suggest that continued alcohol consumption leads to a pathological activation of the
mesolimbic reward system. In the presented study, the modification of the alcohol-mediated
activation of the mesolimbic reward system by the administration of the opiate antagonist
naltrexone will be investigated in a human in vivo model. The aim is to gain important
insights for the further development of pharmacological treatment options for alcohol
dependence. Further development of pharmacological treatment options for alcohol dependence
seems urgently necessary in order to slow down the high tendency to relapse and prolong the
short abstinence period.