'Booze-less' pill offers new hope

Scientists have for the first time developed a pill that can make alcoholics drink less, a conference has been told.

The drug is thought to work by blocking mechanisms in the brain that give alcoholics enjoyment from drink, helping them to fight the urge to drink too much.

It needs to be taken only when one goes out, where one faces the temptation to drink alcohol.

Alcoholics taking the drug, in conjunction with counselling, more than halved the amount of alcohol they drank a day and binged on fewer days.

The findings were presented at the European Psychiatric Association congress in Prague.

The drug, developed by the Lundbeck pharmaceutical company and called nalmefene, is not licensed yet and is presently undergoing clinical trials.

There are other drugs on the market that make addicts ill if they drink any alcohol at all. But this is thought to be the first aimed at reducing the amount of alcohol consumed.

Side-effects included dizziness, nausea, fatigue, sleep disorder, vomiting, cold-like symptoms or excessive sweating.

Dr David Collier, of the Queen Mary University of London, who has worked as an investigator in a nalmefene study, said: "The people volunteering for these trials had real problems with alcohol dependence.

"Most had never sought help before, and others had tried and failed with abstinence strategies - stopping drinking for good. Abstinence is the right option for many people, but not everyone wants to do that, and in those that do try, it helps only about half of them."