Posted by River1924 on September 22, 2007, at 23:49:45
The September 15, 2007 issue of the journal Biological Psychiatry published the results of a pilot study conducted by Jon E. Grant, MD and colleagues at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis that consuming the amino acid N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) reduces the urge to gamble in individuals with gambling addictions, and may help reduce other addictions.
Fifteen men and twelve women treated for pathological gambling as determined by the Yale Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale Modified for Pathological Gambling (PG-YBOCS) were given increasing doses of N-acetyl cysteine for eight weeks. At the end of the treatment period, average test scores had improved, with 16 of the participants classified as responders to the therapy. While three of the responders did not wish to risk discontinuing NAC, 13 entered a double-blind phase of the research, in which one group of subjects received N-acetyl-cysteine and the remainder received a placebo for six weeks. Eighty-three percent of those who received NAC responded favorably, compared with only 28.6 of those assigned to the placebo.
N-acetyl cysteine's effect on glutamate, which is frequently associated in the brain with reward, is likely to be the amino acid's mechanism of action in helping to control addiction. Similar studies with NAC have found positive effects against drug addictions in animals.
“It looks very promising,” stated Dr Grant, who is an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Minnesota School of Medicine. “We were able to reduce people’s urges to gamble.”
Dr Grant is currently investigating NAC in methamphetamine users. “This research could be encouraging for a lot of addictions,” he said.
poster:River1924
thread:784572
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20070816/msgs/784572.html