title: Investigational therapies for the pharmacological treatment of alcoholism.
abstract: Introduction: Alcohol dependence is one of the most important psychiatric disorders leading to enormous harm in individuals and indeed within society. Yet, although alcohol dependence is a disease of significant importance, the availability of efficacious pharmacological treatment is still limited. Areas covered: The current review focuses on neurobiological pathways that are the rationale for recent preclinical and clinical studies testing novel compounds that could be used as treatments for alcohol dependence. These neurobiological mechanisms include the: glutamatergic, dopaminergic and GABA mediated pathways as well as neuroendocrine systems. There is also an interest in the approaches for influencing chromatin structure. Expert opinion: There are several compounds in Phase I and Phase II clinical studies that have produced potentially useful results for the treating alcoholism. Further evaluation is still necessary, and the implementation of Phase III studies will help to elucidate the usefulness of these compounds. It is important that personalized approaches (e.g., pharmacogenomics) are investigated in these later studies, as the efficacy of different compounds may vary substantially between subgroups of patients.
authors.affiliation: Hannover Medical School, Center for Addiction Research (CARe), Department of Psychiatry, Social Psychiatry and Psychotherapy , Carl-Neuberg-Str. 1, 30625 Hannover , Germany +49 511 532 2427 ; +49 511 532 2415 ; hillemacher.thomas@mh-hannover.de.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hillemacher
authors.forename: Lorenzo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Leggio
authors.forename: Annemarie
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Heberlein
keywords: Phase II studies; alcohol dependence; heavy drinking; preclinical studies