Citation

Manolopoulos VG, Ragia G. Curr. Pharm. Biotechnol. 2017; 18(3): 221-230.

Affiliation

Democritus University of Thrace Alexandroupolis, Greece.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Bentham Science Publishers)

DOI

10.2174/1389201018666170224105025

PMID

28240173

Abstract

Alcohol addiction or alcoholism is the most severe form of problem drinking. A variety of treatment methods for alcoholism are currently available that combine medications, behavioral treatment and peer support. The drugs that are currently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for treatment of alcohol dependence are disulfiram, naltrexone and acamprosate. For many patients, however, these treatments are not effective. Evidence from a number of different studies suggests that different factors, both psychosocial and economic, as well as genetic variation, are significant contributors to interindividual variation both of clinical presentation of alcohol problems and response to a given treatment. The aim of the present review is to summarize and discuss different aspects of personalized medicine of alcohol addiction. We focus on pharmacogenomics and beyond, to include the genetics and epigenetics of alcohol addiction as well as other psychosocial and even economic factors that may affect response to alcohol addiction pharmacotherapy. It is anticipated that, within the next 5-10 years, personalized medicine of alcohol addiction will be a reality and it will help reduce the burden of alcoholism from society and increase the well-being and productivity of individuals addicted to alcohol.

Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.org.

Language: en

Keywords

Alcohol; acamprosate; addiction; disulfiram; naltrexone; personalized drug treatment; pharmacogenetics