[imagesource:wikicommons]

A prescription medicine used to treat moderate to severe psoriasis in adults has been found to severely decrease alcohol consumption among alcoholics.

The surprising results have shown that individuals with severe alcohol disorder who used apremilast (Otezla®) had a massive 50% decrease in their booze intake, and although the drug is not prescribed specifically for alcoholics, further studies may prove this a groundbreaking treatment for those who stare too deep into the bottle.

Psoriasis is a skin disease that causes a rash with itchy, scaly patches, most commonly on the knees, elbows, trunk and scalp. Psoriasis is a common, long-term (chronic) disease with no cure.

It’s believed that nearly 170 million people worldwide suffer from alcohol use disorder (AUD), with men being the biggest group at 70% of all cases. Researchers studying mice found that apremilast increases activity in a region of the brain known to play a role in AUD.

Clinical trials involving people with AUD were conducted shortly thereafter with test groups being given either a placebo or apremilast. The subjects who took the placebo still consumed at least five drinks per day, whereas the subjects on apremilast lowered their intake to less than two drinks per day.

People who took apremilast reported anecdotally that they felt little impulse to drink and lacked the desire for alcohol that they usually had. Moreover, the drug was well tolerated with no participants discontinuing treatment due to gastrointestinal side effects.

Apremilast was specifically chosen for the tests as it had very few side effects compared to other psoriasis medications. According to Angela Ozburn, Ph.D., associate professor of behavioural neuroscience in the OHSU School of Medicine, this is a game changer.

“In this study, we saw that apremilast worked in mice. It worked in different labs, and it worked in people. This is incredibly promising for the treatment of addiction in general. It’s very unusual to get results like this, particularly in a severely affected population. This will need to move to larger, broader clinical trials now, but with this study, I think we’ve shown that this is an incredibly promising drug for alcohol use disorder.”

Further trials will obviously be needed before the drug can be marketed as a treatment for AUD, but it looks promising. It seems there really is a pill for everything.

[source:scitechdaily]