Highlights of ARC Research Discoveries
Treatment Implications for Alcohol Withdrawal and Alcohol Use Disorder
- Preclinical and clinical evidence demonstrating that repeated alcohol detoxifications can lead to an increase in seizure risk and more medical complications.
- Use of benzodiazepines for treating multiple withdrawals is associated with rebound effects and increased relapse vulnerability.
- Outpatient management of alcohol withdrawal can be accomplished more safely with anticonvulsant medications.
- Unique treatment challenges in treating individuals with AUD and comorbid conditions (anxiety, depression, PTSD).
Clinical Laboratory Procedures and Treatment Implications
- Developed clinical laboratory procedures for evaluating medication effects on measures of craving and motivation to drink.
- Use of neuroimaging techniques (fMRI, FC, MRS) to examine changes in functional brain activity, demonstrating that individuals with alcohol use disorder react to alcohol cues differently compared to social drinkers.
- Demonstrate that certain medications can “normalize” exaggerated brain activation to alcohol-related cues, reduce craving, and reduce alcohol drinking. genetics can modulate these effects.
- Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a nonpharmacological intervention that holds promise as a novel therapeutic approach that results in neuromodulation of brain circuits to reducing alcohol craving and facilitating enhanced cognitive (behavioral) control over drinking.
- Brains of individuals with alcohol use disorder react to alcohol cues differently from social drinkers and medications can “normalize” that reaction.
- Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a nonpharmacological intervention that holds promise as a novel therapeutic approach to reducing alcohol craving and facilitating enhanced cognitive (behavioral) control over drinking.
- Genetic factors may significantly modify efficacy (effectiveness) of some medications used to treat alcohol use disorder.
Preclinical Models and Research Discoveries
- Developed animal models of alcohol dependence and relapse drinking that can be used as a platform to evaluate new and novel drug treatments.
- Developed models demonstrating that alcohol dependence enhances alcohol-biased choice behavior and persistence of drinking even in the face of aversive outcomes.
- Chronic alcohol disrupts nerve cell functioning in subpopulations of brain cells in cortex and projections to other regions in the brain.
- Alcohol changes neural network activity in different cortical brain regions that influence activity downstream in subcortical structures, and these changes that contribute to altered motivational effects of alcohol.
- Sex-related differences in neuroadaptations to chronic alcohol may impact treatment strategies.
