ALCOHOLISM, CAN IT BE CHEMICAL BASED?

FROM TIME MAGAZINE

Is alcoholism caused by purely social or psychological factors, or does it have its origins in some quirk of body chemistry?

Some time ago two Purdue University scientists published the results of an intriguing experiment that may help clarify the issue. Neurobiologist Robert Myers and Christine Melchoir injected difrectly into the brains of laboratory rats a compound called tetrahydropapaveroline (THP), which is present in opium poppies and is used by the plant to manufacture morphine.

Given a choice of drinking water or ethyl alcohol during the early stages of the experiment, the rats, which normally shun alcohol, always opted for the water. But, Myers and Melchoir write in Science weekly, after only three days of THP treatment the teetotaling rats began switching to the sauce.

Indeed, after a while the rodents became so addicted that they exhibited all the symptoms of alcoholism, including a rodent version of delirium tremens, characterized by whisker-twitching, jerking movements and "wet dog" shakes. These findings, says Myers, contradict a Rand Corp study that suggested some alcoholics could safely return to moderate drinking. He points out that even after nine months of abstention the rats preferred alcohol over water. This strongly bolsters his suspicion that alcoholism is due not to social conditioning - as the Rand study implied, but to lasting chemical changes in the brain.

Still, Myers, who has also discovered a chemical that reduces alcohol consumption in addicted animals, holds out hope. If alcoholism is really rooted in brain chemistry, a drug treatment may be devised to help the problem drinker.

DON says: I have always believed that there is a "gene" (for a better name) in the alcoholic, and I believe that the only way to overcome the disease is a total ban on the use of any form of alcohol.