Ondansetron, a drug used to fight nausea in cancer patients, may help alcoholics reduce their drinking, according to scientists at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.
Researchers say ondansetron appears to work by acting on serotonin.
Serotonin is one of the brain's many transmitters. An imbalance between two chemical messengers in the brain, serotonin and dopamine, is believed to create a craving for alcohol. The ondansetron patients with early-onset alcoholism had fewer drinks per day and reported more days without drinking at all compared to the other groups in the study. Everyone in the study group also participated in weekly cognitive behavioral psychotherapy. If confirmed in future studies, they may predict new treatments for a subgroup of patients who are often resistant to just behavioral therapies alone.