Neuroscience: implications for treatment

Medications can be used to treat alcoholism by decreasing craving for alcohol or by blocking the development of processes that lead to addiction. Medications also can enable alcoholic patients to participate more effectively in treatment by decreasing psychiatric symptoms associated with alcoholism or by improving alcohol-related intellectual impairment. Many promising medications for treating alcoholism appear to play a role in normalizing communication among nerve cells. Such medications include naltrexone and acamprosate, which help prevent relapse in patients undergoing psychotherapy for alcoholism. Medications that affect the neurotransmitter serotonin, however, may alleviate symptoms of anxiety and depression in alcoholics without affecting the alcoholism itself.