Improving the old, embracing the new: implications of alcohol research for future practice

Alcohol research has two important goals. The first of these is to evaluate existing therapies for treating alcoholism. The second, more long term goal is to increase understanding of the biology of alcoholism. The second, more long term goal is to increase understanding of the biology of alcoholism and to use this understanding to develop new targeted medications to prevent alcohol use problems and to improve treatment outcome. Considerable research progress has been made over the past three decades toward achieving each goal. The careful study of existing therapies and the development of both behavioral strategies and medications, such as naltrexone, have helped improve treatment success. New neuroscience techniques have led to an increased understanding of how alcohol's actions in the brain are related to the phenomenon of addiction, and new imaging techniques have permitted scientists to study alcohol's effects on the brain and to link these effects to behavior in ways not even possible just a few years ago. Finally, genetics researchers are using both animal and human genetics techniques to identify the genes that confer vulnerability to alcoholism and developing ways to apply this information to clinical populations. As a result of increased understanding of the biology of alcohol dependence, future clinicians will need to understand not just the traditional behavioral nuances of alcoholism treatment, but the biology of alcohol dependence as well.