A team of researchers at the Queensland University of Technology has found out a cure for those suffering from heavy alcohol usage problems. They have found that Pindolol, a medicine usually prescribed to patients having high blood pressure may ameliorate distress generated by long-term heavy alcohol use.
It also halts the damage such drinking can cause to the brain’s ability to grow new cells, QUT research shows. The findings, from a study conducted in adult mice, have been published in the journal Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience
The principal investigator and QUT neuroscientist, Professor Selena Bartlett, said, “This is a drug that is inexpensive and already available in the US, Canada, Europe, and Australia. It’s a beta-blocker that is prescribed for high blood pressure, angina and heart arrhythmias.”
“We have been studying it for several years and have already shown in animal models that it reduces alcohol intake when there is long-term consumption.
“In this latest study, we investigated the drug’s effect on other alcohol-associated issues—anxiety and neurogenesis.
“Long-term and heavy drinking can cause anxiety disorders, and people’s anxiety can worsen when alcohol is withdrawn, and alcohol abuse can also reduce neurogenesis, which is the process by which new neurons (cells) are formed in the brain.
“We showed that pindolol reduced alcohol-associated anxiety-like behavior in mice and also alleviated the damaging effects of alcohol consumption on newly formed and immature brain cells.”
Key study findings:
- Pindolol reduced the anxiety-like behavior of mice when alcohol was withdrawn after 12 weeks of binge-like consumption.
- Two weeks of daily pindolol treatment at the end of 18 weeks’ alcohol consumption restored damage the alcohol caused to new and immature neurons (cells) in the hippocampus, the primary brain site for new neuron production.
- The drug acts on the receptors for serotonin, the ‘feel-good’ nerve cell chemical and neurotransmitter, and noradrenaline, which is involved in the body’s ‘fight or flight’ response.