Dopamine plays an important role in the development of alcohol dependence, cognitive dysfunction, and is regulated via dopamine transporter activity. Although dopamine transporter activity is critically involved in alcohol dependence, studies observing this relationship are limited. Thus the current study examined whether dopamine transporter availability is associated with developing of alcoho...

BACKGROUND Alcohol dependence is among the main leading health risk factors in most developed and developing countries. Therapeutic success of psychosocial programs for relapse prevention is moderate, but could potentially be increased by an adjuvant treatment with the glutamate antagonist acamprosate. OBJECTIVES To determine the effectiveness and tolerability of acamprosate in comparison to ...

AIMS The functional BDNF single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs6265 has been associated with many disorders including schizophrenia and alcohol dependence. However, studies have been inconsistent, reporting both positive and negative associations. Comorbid alcohol dependence has a high prevalence in schizophrenia so we investigated the role of rs6265 in alcohol dependence in Australian populat...

RICHARD A. GRUCZA, PH.D., M.P.E., is an assistant professor and LAURA J. BIERUT, M.D., is an associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri. Habitual smoking and alcohol dependence frequently co-occur, and the genetic factors that influence both conditions appear to overlap. The Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism...

BACKGROUND Up to fifty percent of alcohol dependent individuals have alexithymia, a personality trait characterised by difficulties identifying and describing feelings, a lack of imagination and an externalised cognitive style. Although studies have examined alexithymia in relation to alcohol dependence, no research exists on mechanisms underlying this relationship. The present study examined t...

Results from twin studies suggest that overlapping genetic factors influence alcohol dependence and illicit drug dependence. Using data from the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism (COGA), we examined the association between 69 SNPs in the GABAA receptor gene cluster on chromosome 4 and marijuana and illicit drug dependence, individually, and as co-occurring phenotypes with alcoho...

Alcoholism is a major public health problem that is detrimental to the affected individuals as well as to society as a whole. It has been popular belief that alcohol dependence can be controlled through will power, skill building, and support. Therefore, psychosocial therapies have historically been the most utilized treatments for alcohol use disorders.(1).

Alcoholism is a debilitating disorder for the individual and very costly for society. A major goal of alcohol research is to understand the neural underpinnings associated with the transition from alcohol use to alcohol dependence. Positive reinforcement is important in the early stages of alcohol use and abuse. Negative reinforcement can be important early in alcohol use by people self-medicat...

BACKGROUND: Alcoholism is characterized by impaired decision-making (i.e., choosing intoxication in the face of mounting negative consequences). This impairment may involve a reduced brain response to the negative consequences of behavior, which supports an inclination to engage in risky behaviors. The feedback error-related negativity (F-ERN) is hypothesized to reflect the valence attached to ...

Background: Cocaine use, abuse and dependence remains a pressing public health problem. Based on its mechanism of action, varenicline, an alpha4beta2 partial agonist seemed to be a likely candidate for treating cocaine dependence. Methods: Cocaine dependent participants (n = 37) were enrolled in a 9-week double-blind placebo controlled clinical trial. Varenicline was titrated up to a target dos...