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.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
SINGLE
Enrollment
43
Placebo oral tablet daily
Naltrexone (Nemexin) oral tablet 50 mg daily for 2 days, Naltrexone (Nemexin) oral tablet 100 mg daily for 5 days
University Hospital RWTH Aachen
Aachen, Germany
Pharmacological effect of naltrexone on the dopamine synthesis rate of a healthy OPRM1 Asp40-bearing men under the influence of alcohol measured with [18F]-fluoro-DOPA PET.
Time frame: 28 days
Dopamine D2 receptor availability in the structures of the ventral and dorsal striatum of a healthy µ-opioid receptor gen (OPRM1, Asp40 Allel)-bearing men under the influence of alcohol measured with [18F]-fallypride Positron Emission Tomography.
Time frame: 28 days
Pharmacological effect of ethanol on dopamine D2 receptor availability in healthy men measured with [18F]-fallypride Positron Emission Tomography.
Time frame: 28 days
Pharmacological effect of ethanol on the dopamine synthesis rate of the ventral and dorsal striatum in healthy men measured with [18F]-fluoro-DOPA PET.
Time frame: 28 days
Pharmacological effect of Naltrexone on dopamine D2 receptor availability in healthy men measured with [18F]-fallypride Positron Emission Tomography.
Time frame: 28 days
Pharmacological effect of Naltrexone on the dopamine synthesis rate of ventral and dorsal striatum in healthy men measured with [18F]-fluoro-DOPA PET.
Time frame: 28 days
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