Acamprosate - An Integrative Therapy for Alcoholism

At the International Council on Alcohol and Addictions meeting in Amsterdam, July 4, Merck KGaA and its subsidiary Lipha celebrated the European launch of their antialcohol dependence drug Campral (acamprosate) for use in integrated relapse-prevention treatment. They also announced the latest concept in alcohol management and education, an Internet server entitled Alcoweb.

Alcohol is the major killer in today's society, with 3%-4% of the population in Europe alone heavily addicted, and a further 6%-9% at risk from dependence through excessive drinking. The indirect and direct health care costs that surround this addiction are enormous, with $120 billion expenditure in the USA.

There have been many hypotheses as to the etiology of alcoholism, and theories now tend to use integrative approaches, eg biopsychosocial models. This draws information from the medical fields of biology, gene expression, sociology, psychology, animal models and pharmacology. One approach, based in the field of neuropsychopharmacology, centers around the function of neurotransmitters. Agents such as Campral have been found to have an effect on the taurinergic and glutamatergic systems on the NMDA receptor in the brain. In chronic alcohol use, the brain adapts so that neurotransmission is almost normal, but when alcohol is withdrawn, the body goes into hyperexcitation, causing classic symptoms of tremors and tachycardia. Through neuromodulation on the GABA-ergic and glutamate NMDA systems, acamprosate helps to restore neurotransmission back to near normal levels.