PubMed · 3125892
The source did not provide an abstract. Follow the original record for more information.
Explore connections, maps & timelines
G Milner. 1988-01-30. Which treatments work for drinking problems.. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.296.6618.356
Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.
KEEP EXPLORING
The most challenging aspect of treating alcohol and drug addiction is the relapsing course of these disorders. Although substitution therapies for nicotine and opioid dependence have proven to be relatively effective, there is a need for new pharmacotherapies designed to decrease the frequency and severity of relapse. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the potential utility of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonists as treatments for substance abuse as shown in preclinical models and preliminary clinical trials. It is hypothesized that NMDA receptors mediate the common adaptive processes that are involved the development, maintenance, and expression of drug and alcohol addiction. Modulation of glutamatergic neurotransmission with NMDA receptor antagonists offers a novel treatment approach. It is proposed that NMDA antagonists may have multiple functions in treating addictions, including an attenuation of withdrawal effects, normalization of the affective changes following initiation of abstinence which arise from neurochemical changes resulting from chronic addiction, and an attenuation of conditioned responses arising from drug-related stimuli.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Family and adoption studies indicate that genetic factors play a role in the development of many psychiatric disorders. A variable number of possible interacting genes predisposing to the diseases is likely. The genetic dissection has been hampered by genetic complexity as well as by difficulties in defining the phenotypes. Genetic mapping efforts using sib pairs, twins and individual large families has revealed preliminary or tentative evidence for susceptibility loci for a number of psychiatric disorders. Illnesses include the prion disease familial fatal insomnia (FFI), alcoholism, anorexia nervosa, autism, bipolar affective disorder, dyslexia, enuresis nocturnal, epilepsia, obsessive-compulsive disorders (OCD), schizophrenia, as well as the dementias, Alzheimer's disease and frontal lobe dementia, and mental retardation. The genes and proteins related to the newly discovered transmitter in the central nervous system, nitric oxide (NO), and its genes and proteins are also reviewed. The number of mapped human genes now exceeds 30,000 of the estimated total number of 60,000 to 100,000 genes. This rapid development will facilitate gene mapping, as well as efforts to isolate and identify the genes responsible for symptom susceptibility in many of the etiologically unclear psychiatric diseases with complex genetic origin.