Conditions: Alcohol Drinking
Keywords: Alcohol Drinking Memantine
Allocation: RANDOMIZED | Intervention model: PARALLEL
Enrollment: 111
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of the study medication, memantine (placebo, 20 mg or 40 mg/day) on alcohol drinking behavior in a laboratory setting in which participants are given an initial drink of alcohol followed by the choice to drink up to 12 more drinks over a three-hour period. We hypothesize that memantine will reduce craving and number of drinks consumed prior to and after exposure to the initial drink of alcohol and during the three hour drinking period. We will also evaluate the influence of family history of alcoholism on the efficacy of memantine in reducing alcohol drinking behavior.

Detailed description:

Arms:
arm 1: 20 mg memantine arm 2: 40 mg memantine arm 3: None

Interventions: intervention 1: memantine intervention 2: Memantine intervention 3: Placebo
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: Memantine 20 mg once per day for 7 days intervention 2: Memantine 40 mg once per day for 7 days intervention 3: Placebo once per day for 7 days

Protocol document: